I’ll give you a pass here - you’re obviously lashing out. Not only does your team fail and the coaching staff let you down, but there are precious few players on your roster that you can respect.
I’d tell you that I feel your pain, except, of course, I don’t.
I’m not sure if I can buy this, in Hollywood at least, if you need a team to be the bad guys, they still picked the Yanks in the early 70s and late 80s even after prolonged periods of either being very bad or at least in the 80s, a clueless joke of itself, just throwing money away. IRC, Dallas has actually failed to win a playoff game in 11 years. (I am hoping it become 12 today). Most people that hated the Cowboys still do. I can see the Patriot’s hatred fading over time if they suddenly tank for an extended time, but I think the Cowboys & Yankees are too well established as teams to hate. It is multi-generational hatred now.
On the O’s part, when I started watching baseball, the O’s were better than the Yanks or Red Sox. In the 80s through the early 95 they were better than both. I just hate the Red Sox no matter what. It is ingrained in my psyche at this point. I actually consider the Os more of a rival than the Mets, as I fondly remember the Martin/Weaver dustups.
Even if the Yanks and Red Sox both went into a decade long slide, we would still hate each other the most, even if watching the Os or the Jays run off 10 straight.
Oh, as to the Yankee fans visiting Baltimore, two things about that, I think it is generally accepted that Yankee fans are collectively the third or fourth most obnoxious fans in baseball. Philly & Boston are 1 & 2 and the Yanks or Mets are third. As the visiting Yankee fans are largely from NJ & NYC itself, when the locals insult us or our team, we get louder and more obnoxious. Crap, I am guilty of returning a jibe against Jeter’s sexual orientation into a 3 minute spiel about what a selfish pussy Saint Ripken was and hey he was the one with a male traveling companion. It did not even matter if my facts were sketchy, I had the moronic fan spitting mad when I was done. 
Jim
I hate the New York Yankees…
Pretty much goes without saying when you are a die hard Red Sox Fan. 
Don’t necessarily care so much. I could be a Montreal Expos fan and I’d still hate the Yankees.
The Cowboys aren’t the primary rival of the Giants; the Eagles are. Notice how today is the first time the Cowboys and Giants have ever met in the playoffs? That’s partly because they usually aren’t good at the same time. In the 70s, the Cowboys were great while the Giants sucked. In the 80s the Giants were great while the Cowboys sucked. In the 90s it was the Cowboys turn again. That means that most of the contests were lopsided affairs. And now in the 2000s both are, well, average.
The Eagles, OTOH, are the team that has had way more hotly contested games with the Giants. If I were to objectively rank the Giants’ rivals, I’d put the 49ers at #2 behind the Eagles. (My Giants-based hatred of the Ravens & Chargers is really more of a personal problem than a legitimate rivalry.)
The NFC East basically breaks down into two primary rivalries: Cowboys/Redskins and Eagles/Giants.
I only arrived in the US in 2000, too late to really have any investment in the whole Baltimore Colts thing. I understand why Baltimoreans hate the Colts, but i wasn’t here when the Colts were stolen by Indy, and i never grew up in a “Hate the Colts” atmosphere.
That said, i’ve grown to hate the Colts anyway. I hate seeing Peyton Manning whoring himself out to whatever advertiser wants to pay him a dollar. As someone suggested on these boards recently (i’m paraphrasing, because i can’t find the post), Peyton Manning would be the spokesman for Tom Brady’s dick if you gave him enough money.
I also hate how the Colts seem to get the benefit of every close call in every fucking game they ever play. It happened against New England earlier this year, and it’s happening against San Diego today. Like the guys at halftime on CBS, i saw no hold on that runback at the end of the second quarter. I don’t believe it’s a conspiracy or anything like that, and perhaps i’m only remembering a few unrepresentative incidents, but it always seems to me that, whenever there is a close call that’s crucial to the development of the game, it goes Indy’s way.
And my American sports hates…
Baseball is the Yankees and recently the Red Sox.
Hockey is the Devils.
Basketball is a combo of the Celtics and the Knicks.
And football - as a Packers fan it has to be the Bears. I know Vikings fans think I am meant to hate their team, but I just can’t get the interest up to do it.
/* Quick hijack/question that doesn’t warrant it’s own thread
British Footballers, why is the team called Sheffield Wednesday?
/* now back to your regularly scheduled sports hate speech
I was born in central Ohio, went to Notre Dame, and root against the Buckeyes and the Irish, but really it’s just because I’m sick of them.
In baseball, I hate the Red Yanx. I’m not kidding myself any longer. They are the same team. And even them I usually don’t hate. I just root against them because I’m sick of them.
And for personal reasons, I’m pleased that UK basketball is in the toilet this year. I’m sick of them!
As an Edmonton Oiler fan since the age of 2, I am honourbound to hate and despise the Calgary Flames. For much of my hockey fandom, this hasn’t been much of a contest as the Oilers virtually owned the Flames. Even with the injury-inspired downswing the Oilers are on this year, they are doing quite well against them.
Of course, this makes living where I live somewhat interesting as a sports fan.
I also have minor league hates on for the Penguins and Kings.
The origins of the club are with a cricket team which played mid-week matches. The Wednesday Cricket Club later morphed into the Wednesday Football Club, and then the city’s name was added.
Ellis Dee, this is age based. If you were old enough to remember pre-Superbowl (I am not) As a Giants fan, the Redskins would be your arch-rival, but if you started watching in the late 60s or 70s, then the Cowgirls are. Tonights win was huge for myself, my brother, our friend and his cousin. It was huge for most of the Giants fans I know around my age except Hal Briston, who started watching football later in life. Like you, he considers the Eagles the #1 rival. Eagles are only #2 for me and the Skins a distant 3rd.
When did you start watching the Giants?
Jim (BTW: The Giants beat Dallas, Woohoo!, we’re going to Greenbay!)
Back in that prehistoric, preSuperBowl period, actually the Browns were the Giants big rival, from the time Cleveland entered the league in 1950 until the merger and the Browns transfer into the old AFC Central.
I was going by my Dad who apparently attended some historic “Sneaker Game” when Dinosaurs roamed the Earth. Actually, it looks like he was referring to the 1956 version, where the Giants trashed the Bears 47 to 7 in the Polo Grounds. He was too young for the 1934 version.
Jim
I started following the Giants in the preseason of the 1990 Superbowl year.
When do you think the Cowboys-Giants rivalry heated up? Note that if you point to a time when one of them sucked, you’ll have proved my point.
The Giants-Eagles rivalry heated up in th 80s. The Cowboys franchise was created during the 20-year drought when the Giants sucked, so no rivalry in the 60s or 70s. The Cowboys sucked in the 80s, so no rivalry there. The Eagles, OTOH, were brutal games back in the 80s.
You might be able to make a case for the Redskins, but really, two of their three Superbowl wins under Gibbs were in strike seasons. Whoopdee-doo, they won with scabs.
While the Giants sucked in the 70s. Dallas was the team to beat in the NFC. So it is similar to how Detroit fans consider the Yanks their rivals, but it is not reciprocated. As the Giants finally got respectable and then good in the 80s, it was still Dallas we needed to overcome and beat out. This cemented the rivalry for me. There was a game at the end of the 1981 season, where the Giants needed to beat Dallas to squeak in for the first time in my life. When the Giants beat Dallas 13 to 10, largely on the strength of an LT led defense, it was a break through day for all younger Giants fans.
You weren’t there for it, so you probably can’t understand what it is like when your team that has always sucked in your life, finally gets into the playoffs and do it against the biggest, baddest team in football. Dallas going into the game was 12-3 and they won the division. There is also the fact that Landry and Parcells both were Giants that went over to the “dark side”. In 1984, we tied Dallas at 9-7. Taylor had single-handedly destroyed Gary Hogeboom & Danny White that year. Because we beat them both times, we got the wildcard and they went home. This was big.
This is the best I can explain, why at a certain age group, it was Dallas and not the Eagles.
Jim
Moreso than the Bears and 49ers?
Also, it’s worth pointing out that when the Giants got good in the 80s, both the Eagles and the Redskins had been to the Superbowl more recently than the Cowboys.
Doesn’t matter though, it was the Dallas Cowboys that were still over-hyped and called America’s Team. They were the team that always seemed to get the calls and the special treatment. Even with the last league re-alignment, they got special treatment and somehow stayed in the NFC East.