Every major sport needs a major rivalry. Every “golden age” of a sport has been dominated by that rivalry. In some cases instead of a rivalry a sport might have a transcendent superhuman figure, and that works just as well. But the average fan needs SOMETHING to fire up their interest in the game.
Examples are easy to find:
Tennis – Borg vs McEnroe, Evert vs Navratilova
Hockey – Wayne Gretzky, later Mario Lemeux
Baseball – Babe Ruth, DiMaggio vs Williams
Basketball – Michael Jordan, Bird vs Johnson, Russell vs Wilt
Football – Jim Brown, Smith vs Sanders, and most recently Brady vs Manning
Just a few examples. These rivalries give fans a reason to care about the games. Bragging rights are on the line. Week in and week out the exploits of their favorites are compared to the rest of the league or against their rivals…
But what is that NFL rivalry or superstar now?
Brady missed a year and was understandably slow to return to his standards after a serious injury, and Manning is now out and my never return. There really isn’t a transcendent football player at the moment, and with Brady/Manning becoming a memory, there isn’t really a clear rivalry to replace them.
Sure there are a lot of interesting players, but most are only beloved and championed by their team fans. Roethlesberger is mostly despised outside of Pittsburgh, Vick is despised by most of the nation, there hasn’t been a dominant running back in a decade, there isn’t even a Lawrence Taylor type player on defense.
Once you get past Brady and Manning, the NFL landscape gets pretty bland and uninteresting, and while Brady and Manning might have a year or two left in their rivalry, when that’s done, what will be the major story line in the NFL? Cam Newton vs Andrew Luck? Maybe so, but I don’t really see that. My suspicion is that Luck will be a solid NFL quarterback, but the second coming of Peyton Manning… I don’t think so.
A few decades ago the NFL was overrun with interesting rivalries. Elway vs Montana vs Marino; Rice vs well… just Rice; Sanders vs Smith…
Is there any such rivalry on the horizon for the NFL? Who will carry the torch into the next decade?
5 users commented in " NFL in transition… "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackI’m not sure if I agree.
First of all, Football is a team sport – and most fans root for the teams and have rivalries based on teams rather than players.
I have never seen the individual performances as “rivalries.” How could Sanders and Smith be “rivals?” Their teams seldom played against one another (23 times total have the Lions played the Cowboys in the history of the game.)
Brady/Manning would be much closer, but still a few football fields away. Colts/Patriots are a rivalry and will be long after the two of them are gone.
It’s much the same in baseball. Boston will always be the rival to New York.
Basketball is somewhat different, as it is a more individual sport. But, the great rivalries transcend time and players – Boston/LA, for example.
It’s different, of course, in bask
Well, maybe I’m unique. I don’t give a fig about the NE Patriots, but I enjoy watching Brady succeed. Yes I was a Cowboy “homer” but I definitely got caught up in the Smith vs Sanders rivalry. I remember quite a few stories on ESPN comparing the two. I thought one of the best concluded that Sanders was the better running back, while Smith was the better running back (meaning Sanders was a better pure runner, while Smith was the more complete position player who blocked and caught passes more reliably, a conclusion I share, actually).
Because I really only care about two teams, and before moving to Denver only cared about one team really, I need personalities to make me care about other games.I check on Brady and Manning every week because I’m invested in their performance since I am on record saying that Brady is the better QB.
Oh, don’t mistake me. Any fan is going to COMPARE the great players of the day – even of different eras (as we have amply demonstrated on this very blog many times…). I just don’t see that as a “rivalry.”
Lately we seem to be having rivalry’s between coaches rather than players.
LOL, Yup. That will go down in NFL history as the “hard handshake” controversy…
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