So who really gets your goat? Who can you not bear to lose to?
I have a variety of betes noir here are a few…
Football:
Local sporting enemies (My team Spurs): Arsenal. Because they are only one mile away, and moved to this particular part of north London from south East London just to annoy us. There is a litany of grievances against the nike-pikeys including them bribing their way into the league at our expense through to stealing our (unmarried) Centre half for nothing. Grrr
National Football foes (my team England). Scotland (although that is more from their side than ours - and it’s hardly a contest anymore) and Germany, with whom we have a history of close fought (and usually losing) matches. Games against Argentina are taken pretty seriously too. Quite a few teams take a delight in beating us, but the rivalry from them is unrequited.
Cricket: My team is Hampshire and we can do without Surrey - but it isn’t that strong. At a national level our rivalry is with Australia, one of the oldest sporting rivalries there is. Unfortunately it’s all a bit one way at the moment.
I have been a Seton Hall fan since I was 10(yes it has been painfull at times)… so the obvious Michigan for stealing away our championship with a ghost foul in 1989… and locally Rutgers because they all smell bad…
Internationally, New Zealand, sorry POMs … it’s been so long since you beat us at anything more competitive than darts (oops we’ve the world champion in Tony David there too), that I’m forced to consider backing you lot in the Rah Rah World Cup.
AFL Carlton … any week Carlton doesn’t win and Geelong doesn’t lose is a good weekend.
Cricket: It’s a rivalry that goes back over a century …“Look that’s a Victorian cricketer … heave half a brick at 'im”
Rugby League: Queensland
Hockey: I really hated losing to Glebe … and had plenty of practice.
American Football: I am a San Francisco Forty-Niner fan (grew up there) - I am obligated to hate the Dallas Cowboys - an obligation I carry out with enthusiasm. The Rams were a worse rival when they were in Los Angeles, but it is less intense now…
Baseball: I am a New York Yankees fan (really didn’t appreciate baseball until moving to NY, right when the Torre dynasty was getting started), so obviously, the Boston Red Sox are the big rivals…
Sadly, our poor old sheep loveris in denial already and the World Cup doesn’t kick off for another five weeks. Oh wait! but that wasn’t “competitive”. Sure – what’s he going to be like come that glorious day in November ?
And I’m with the OP, word for word (excepting the “marrried” reference and Scotland, to whom I’m entirely indifferent).
Football: Dallas was a dominant team that SF had to move through to ascend to greatness when I was growing up - they met many times in the playoffs. Add to that the Cowboys’ “America’s Team” nickname (yuk!) and the whole Texas-California “we’re the biggest/best state” competitiveness, and a whole lot of rivalry happens.
Baseball: If you don’t know about the history of the Yankees/Red Sox rivalry, you don’t know about baseball. It starts with the Red Sox selling Babe Ruth to the Yankees right after they (the Sox) won the World Series in 1918, and their (again, the Sox) never winning the Series since then. But it is far more storied and complex than just that…
The only big rivalry for me is (American) football. Living in Pittsburgh, I of course hate the Steelers. I grew up near Cleveland, y’see, and am thus a Browns fan regardless of location. Oh, and now for my obligatory Modell-bashing*: I hope his Ravens don’t win a game all year.
For those who don’t follow football too much, Art Modell decided that nearly selling out one of the largest stadiums in the NFL wasn’t enough for him, and picked up his team and moved them to Baltimore in '96, renaming them the Ravens. So even though the Steelers are the traditional rivalry, most Browns fans also have a burning hatred for their former team. It helps that the Browns are more likely to beat the Ravens than the Steelers.
American Football. I hate the Packers. What makes it even worse is that when so many of their fans flee their horrid little corner of the earth they head straight to Minnesota. So our lovely little berg is teeming with these cheese-hat wearing slack jaws.
Ask A Vikings fan who they hate, it’s packers.
Ask A Bears fan who they hate, it’s packers.
Ask A Lions fan who they hate, it’s the lions.
There are different teams that I like to see win, during football season. However, a perfect weekend does not depend on who wins, but who loses. If Ohio State loses then it is a good weekend. Unfortunately, they have had good teams lately, but that makes it even better when they lose.
College: I am a University of Alabama fan… therefore Auburn University, and the University of Tennessee are my main anathemas… but many other teams like to take shots at 'Bama when we are in down times… they are all jealous of our legacy of greatness.
College Sports (Div I): Grew up a UCLA fan, so it’s always upsetting when they lose to the drooling ninnies at USC. Especially at basketball. That’s just embarassing.
College Sports (D III): I went to school in DC, however, so I care more about Catholic University basketball. We have a nice rivalry going with Marymount that started two years ago in the Conference finals that almost resulted in a bleachers clearing brawl. Good times.
Baseball: I’m an Anaheim fan, so while I don’t really have a one team hatred ala New York and Boston, I do take a certain delight in watching Texas flounder at the bottom and Seattle fading when it counts. I also thoroughly enjoy it when they beat the Dodgers during the Freeway Series. Always puts a hop in my step. Don’t hate the A’s because I have so much respect for what their organization has been doing and secretly cheer for them when they aren’t in a position to hurt the Angels (direct competition or in a pennant race).
Basketball: Lakers fan. Can’t stand Sacramento. Bunch of cowbell waving yokels whose owners try to buy a championship. I wouldn’t mind if they weren’t so scary good. I cheered when they lost to Dallas last year. Stupid Kings, hope they never win and return to mediocrity.
Football: No rivalry since my team left. I just hate Oakland and Dallas and hope they never win again. So glad Tampa embarrassed the Raiders last year.
Well, shit, we’re guaranteed at least 2 wins, we play Cleveland twice.
We’ll just sit back and polish the Super Bowl trophy we won 2 years ago, whatcya’ll got, other than a stream of piss running down your legs whenever anyone mentions the name “Elway”?
In spite of this, and to answer the OP, Pittsburgh is by far our biggest rival in football. Cleveland is a distant second or third, but their fans do whine louder than the fans of any 3 other teams in the league combined.
Same here, exept I became a 49ers fan through my hatred of the Cowboys. I grew up in Arkansas, where Dallas was all you saw on TV, week in, week out. When I moved to the DC area, it was pretty cool because Redskins fans share my hatred of the Cowboys. Of course now it’s pretty irrelevant, the Cowboys being sorry and all…
Also, being from Arkansas and a Razorbacks fan, I naturally hated the Longhorns and Aggies. Nowadays, I have to settle for Alabama in football and Kentucky in basketball…
WAHOOOOO! Things haven’t been going well of late, but I recall the days of Ralph Sampson fondly (except for that warp in the space/time thing that allowed Chamanade to defeat us). The UVa/UNC rivalry was always a wonder to behold. The ACC tournament is practically a holiday around here. I’m required by love to root for whoever is playing UNC.
College football
VA Tech, and the Holie minions, rule the proverbial roost in these parts. VA looks good this year, though (well, except for losing our star QB in the first quarter of the opener - yeah, except for that). Unfortunately, I work with damn near the entire Hokie fan club (or so it seems).
Baseball
I’m an Orioles fan. Natty Bo, Boog Powell, Brooks Robinson at the hot corner, Jim Palmer, and Earl Weaver - the whole thing is engrained in me. The Yankees and the Red Sox may have a long-standing feud, but once upon a time the Orioles were in the thick of it, too. As a matter of principal, I hate the Pittsburgh Pirates beyond all reason and leave the room or turn the station whenever “We Are Family,” by Sister Sludge, comes on.
I think that every right-thinking baseball fan should hate the Yankees, if only because liking them encourages Steinbrenner to continue being Steinbrenner.
