If you thought the NFL in general is brutal, the biggest and best NFL rivalries takes things to the next level. As America’s favorite sport, football gets the adrenaline pumping and the rage flowing.
Rivalries with neighboring cities is understandable, but some of the hatred stems from the rights to a song or a single player. Let’s takes a look at the 10 biggest NFL rivals:
10. Philadelphia Eagles vs. New York Giants
New York and Philadelphia are less than 100 miles apart and so, the hatred started ever since they started playing against each other in 1933. As NFC East rivals both teams can be as petty as each other.
Take Chuck Bednarik’s “The Hit” that put Giants running back Frank Gifford in hospital for 10 days. Or the Giants losing the unlosable in the Miracle at the Meadowlands. Why’s it always the Giants losing this rivalry?
9. New York Jets vs. New England Patriots
For 18 long years this rivalry was pointless. The Patriots won everything during the Bill Belichick-Tom Brady era and the Jets just watched on like a helpless cuck. So how has the Jets and Patriots become one of the best NFL rivalries?
Most of the Jets-Patriots hatred for each other is because of what’s happened off the field. Belichick was Jets head coach for a day before handing in his resignation on a napkin. There’s also “Spygate” and a history of coach tampering.
8. Kansas City Chiefs vs. Las Vegas Raiders
Before the Raiders sold their soul and moved to Vegas, and before the Chiefs were overtaken by “Swifties”, the Chiefs-Raiders rivalry was fierce with a history of bench-clearing and destroying each other’s playoff hopes.
It’s a different era now but the Chiefs and Raiders still find plenty of ways to irritate each other, like when the Raiders paraded around the Arrowhead parking lot, or the Chiefs used the Raiders locker room at Super Bowl LVIII.
7. Green Bay Packers vs. Minnesota Vikings
The Packers have always hated the Vikings ever since they invaded their turf when they joined the NFL in 1961. It’s a rivalry that now splits families and friends right down in the middle in western Wisconsin.
Brett Favre epitomizes the Packers-Vikings rivalry with the Hall of Fame quarterback betraying his beloved Green Bay for Minnesota after 16 years. Statistically he had his best ever season at the Vikings in 2009.
6. Washington Commanders vs. Philadelphia Eagles
The “Body Bag Game” between the Commanders and Eagles reinforced one of the biggest NFL rivalries with the NFC East powerhouses less than 130 miles apart.
Philadelphia injured nine Washington players in the 1990 game, after Eagles coach Buddy Ryan said pre-game that Commanders players would “have to be carted off in body bags”.
5. Dallas Cowboys vs. Philadelphia Eagles
The “Bounty Bowl” games in 1989 took the rivalry of the Cowboys and Eagles to the next level. These NFC East enemies went to the next level when Cowboys head coach Jimmy Johnson accused Philadelphia of putting bounties on their players to injure them, with Eagles fans responding two weeks later by throwing anything they could at Dallas players.
A decade later Cowboys all-time great Michael Irvin went down with a neck injury during a Cowboys-Eagles rivalry game. What did Eagles fans do? Erupted with cheers as paramedics strapped him and stretchered him off the field. All class.
4. Dallas Cowboys vs. Washington Commanders
The Commanders have another rivalry, this time with the most popular NFL team and “America’s Team”, the Cowboys. It began over a song. Dallas oil tycoon Clint Murchison Jr. held Washington’s fight song to ransom and would ban its use unless they voted for a Dallas team.
A couple years later they’d become NFC East rivals in 1961 when the Cowboys joined the NFL. Washington’s founder also openly supported racial segregation, a reason why there so many Cowboys fans in Washington. No wonder the Cowboys and Commanders are one of the biggest and best rivalries ..
3. Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Baltimore Ravens
AFC North powerhouse matchup Steelers-Ravens are our second biggest rivalry and this game hits differently. The hits are more vicious, the fans are more feral and the matchups are ferocious. Think Flacco vs. Roethlisberger, Reed vs. Polamalu, Lewis vs. Bettis or Suggs vs. Ward.
Many steelers fans moved to Baltimore between the 70s and 90s at the collapse of the Pittsburgh steel industry. It’s also a reason why we see those “terrible towels” waving anywhere around the country where the Steelers play.
2. Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Cincinnati Bengals
Vontaze Burfict took the Steelers-Bengals rival to a different planet on January 9th, 2016 when he violently knocked Antonio Brown with a hit that he’s never truly recovered from. JuJu Smith-Schuster got “payback” with an illegal block that knocked Burfict out the following season.
Burfict even admitted to playing dirty, but only against the Steelers. The viciousness not only in his remark but his play on the field means that he almost single handedly created one of the biggest and best NFL rivalries.
1. Chicago Bears vs. Green Bay Packers
The Bears vs. Packers is the number one best NFL rivalry. Green Bay is owned by the community, and Chicago is majority owned by a single family. Rivals since 1921, they share a state border and it’s only a 30-minute drive from Chicago to the Wisconsin Border.
If you’re from Wisconsin, you’ll see Chicagoans as fishtabs. In reverse those from Green Bay are just annoying “Cheeseheads”. In recent times, it’s the Cheeseheads who are having the last laugh, overtaking the Bears head-to-hear in 2017 and never looking back.
