Every sports team has a rival, but none are as poetic and enticing as the ones that include New York’s many sports teams. From coach swaps, jaw dropping heroics, questionable trades, and maybe a little bit of magic, the New York sports rivalries help define the high dramatics and sense of tribe that make sport our second national preoccupation besides food.
Here now is a look at some of the best New York sports rivalries.
Football: The Jets And The Patriots
The Jets-Patriots rivalry isn’t as historically rich as the Yankees-Red Sox blood feud, but it feels a bit more personal.
Launched at the start of the new millennium (following four decades of mostly stock geography-based animosity), the pain has been mostly one-sided for the Jets ever since Bill Belichick quit as Jets head coach by way of a note on a napkin one day after getting the job. Since then, the Patriots have gone on to win four Super Bowls thanks to their coach and the franchise quarterback who, oh yes, got his first chance at substantial playing time thanks to Jet linebacker Mo Lewis’ Wally Pipping of former Patriot quarterback Drew Bledsoe.
Sure, over the years the Jets have had their moments and they’ll always have the joy of knowing that they put a miniscule asterisk next to the Patriots’ accomplishments thanks to their finger-pointing with Spygate, but the Pats win out because of those rings and because Brady’s son was named Jet by his ex. Tom Brady is literally Jet’s Daddy.
Baseball: The Yankees And The Red Sox
Here’s another one that has an exact starting point: The day Babe Ruth got sold to the Yankees by the Red Sox. Though it wasn’t exactly done to fund a play as the myth typically reads, the Sawx still suffered for a near eternity as the Yankees won 26 World Championships from 1923-2000 and the Red Sox won zero.
Essentially wasting the careers of greats like Ted Williams and Carl Yastrzemski would be bad enough, but the Red Sox were blessed with a front-row seat to their own destruction often, most notably in 1978, when Yankees light-hitting shortstop Bucky Dent hit an inexplicable home run to top Boston in a one-game playoff.
The Red Sox would get back to within striking distance of winning the World Series in 1986, but the Curse of the Bambino skipped over to Flushing, Queens, and helped the Mets accomplish their own crushing comeback. An event that wouldn’t be topped until 2003 when history repeated itself and Yankees third baseman Aaron Boone clinched the ALCS by hitting an extra innings walk-off home run off the Red Sox. The Yankees would, however, go on to lose the World Series that year to the Florida Marlins and they would lose Boone to an off-season basketball incident, pushing them to acquire Alex Rodriguez, who the Red Sox had failed to obtain previously.
If not for the Yankees lone title since then in 2009, one would be tempted to talk about a reverse curse, but something cosmic clearly shifted after 2003 because the Red Sox have won three titles since then and nobody knows nothin’ about no Bambino curse no more.
Basketball: The Knicks And The Bulls
We’ve gone from a fresh rivalry to an incredibly lengthy one, and now we have a flash one that doesn’t really feel relevant anymore. Not with the Knicks on the outside looking in come playoff season, and the Bulls playing a solid but unspectacular type of basketball as a perpetual near-contender for an NBA Title.
Don’t get me wrong. Carmelo Anthony and Derrick Rose bring some excitement to Madison Square Garden when they throw down (when both are healthy, that is) but it doesn’t compare to the battles that were waged in New York and Chicago when Patrick Ewing, John Starks, and Charles Oakley got into it with Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, and whoever else the Bulls brought to the fight.
From 1989 to 1996, the Bulls and Knicks met six times in the playoffs, with the Bulls winning all but one of those matchups. And there’s a big, Michael-Jordan-sized asterisk next to that one win in 1994 when his Airness was retired for the first time.
Will Knicks-Bulls games mean as much again? We’ll see, but it might help if one-time Bulls coach and Knicks legend Phil Jackson finds a way to motivate the Knicks to win some damn games.
Hockey: The Rangers And The Devils
The Devils were doomed to a bitter rivalry right from the start: When they moved to New Jersey from Colorado in 1982, they had to pay a fortune to the Rangers due to NHL rules, and the Devils have been trying to get their money’s worth from the Rangers ever since. It didn’t help matters that the Devils took the Stanley Cup from the Rangers in 1995 after the Rangers snapped a 50-year-plus drought… and knocked the Rangers out of the division race in 2006 in come-from-behind fashion. Currently, though, the Rangers are on top, having won eight consecutive games against the Devils. Also, Puddy is a Devils fan, a shame few will live down.
Football: The Giants And The Eagles
We had to close with this, one of the longest running rivalries in the NFL. It began way back in 1933, when the Giants wiped out Philadelphia 56-0, and one that’s only gotten more intense as the Giants began collecting Super Bowl titles. It’s been an extremely tight rivalry outside the championship numbers; however; the Giants only lead by six games.
If you’re ready to see the great football rivalries play out once again this season, make sure it’s at Buffalo Wild Wings, the official hangout for New York Sports. After all, if you go out to see the game, you should see it in style.
