IRVING, Texas — If you’re looking for Ohio State-Michigan, go watch the college game. Duke-North Carolina? Not only another level, but another sport entirely.
Rivalries like those don’t exist in the NFL. The truth is, they don’t exist in pro sports, or at least they don’t in the minds of the people who are doing the actual blocking and tackling and throwing and catching and carrying.
Sure, there are personal conflicts (Eric Mangini/Bill Belichick, Al Davis/Mike Shanahan, Terrell Owens/Randy Moss, Jon Kitna/legitimate guarantees), but the border wars that are real at the college level, with a taste for blood on the combatants’ mouths, are nothing more than contrived conflicts in the NFL.
So we have it when one of the league’s granddaddy battles — Cowboys-Redskins — kicks off this weekend. Fired up, are we, Jim Zorn?
“I just don’t have the animosity yet, you know what I mean?” Zorn told the D.C. press corps. “I know I’m the head football coach and I’m supposed to. I’m sure I’ll get there at some point down the road.
“My experience [with rivalries] is with the Seahawks and Raiders. I know there are certain things that feed rivalries, and I’m just waiting to see what happens now with the Redskins and Cowboys.”
Now, imagine if Pete Carroll said that in the days leading up to his first USC-Notre Dame game. What if Nick Saban, new at Alabama last year, shared similar feelings before playing Auburn for the first time as Tide coach?
“Uh, yeah, I hear it’s a pretty big deal. I’ll have to catch up on that one.”
At the college level, there’d probably be no recovering from saying something like that, in the eyes of alumni. In the pros, Redskins-Cowboys is equated with Seahawks-Raiders, which means neither one really matters unless both teams are good.
Need any explanation why Niners-Cowboys was the premier rivalry of the 1990s, or why Colts-Patriots is the preeminent series of this decade? You can find it this week.
See, the way that this week’s Redskins-Cowboys showdown, which is also vital for early-position jockeying in the division, is being dealt with by the teams provides perfect fodder why the pros can’t match their college brethren in this department.
“We have a rivalry game every week,” Dallas quarterback Tony Romo said. “They’re all important.”
Doesn’t exactly stoke the fire, does it?
In college, a coach can save his job by beating an archrival consistently. Conversely, he can be otherwise outstanding and lose his job by struggling against that rival (see: Cooper, John).
Those cases create rivalries as entities of their own, separate from the rest of the regular season or postseason competition.
“I think in college,” said Cowboys coach Wade Phillips, “Those guys actually HATE each other.”
And if that hate can’t be drummed up in the NFC East, then it just won’t ever exist in the NFL.
Consider: When the league realigned is geographically-dysfunctional divisional setup in 2002, they left one nonsensical grouping in the place, the one in the NFC East. The Giants, Eagles and Redskins all play within a stretch of I-95 covering roughly 221 miles. There are no fewer than nine NFC cities (Detroit, Chicago, Green Bay, Minneapolis, Charlotte, Atlanta, Tampa, New Orleans, and St. Louis) closer to that megalopolis than Dallas is.
Yet, history kept the group together through the league-wide shuffling. Real hatred didn’t. Rivalry? Kind of.
“For certain guys it does (matter),” said veteran linebacker Zach Thomas, in the days leading to his first Cowboys-and-Indians battle. “But I try to look at the big picture — ‘Hey, win your games now, be consistent, try to get better and then be high at the end of the season.’ So if you try to look at each game, be up for one game more than another, it doesn’t really make much sense, so you try to pace yourself.
“But it does fall into play somewhere there, especially being a rivalry, especially if they’ve had your number.”
And the Redskins have, taking four of six from Dallas over the last three years. The biggest one, without question, came last December.
A 27-6 win got the Redskins in the playoffs. There was, however, a caveat. The Cowboys gradually pulled starters over the course of the ballgame, having already locked up home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.
Afterward, Phillips said, “The word for us was ‘uninspired.’ It shows you when one team is fired up and the other one isn’t.”
In professional sports, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. Rivalries don’t have a life of their own.
Which is why, if you’re looking for real ones, the NFL isn’t the place to go searching.
Staff writer Albert Breer covers the NFL for Sporting News.
Redskins tickets available here Cowboys tickets available here
Related posts:
- New York Giants Beat Washington Redskins 45-12 Week 15 Highlights The New York Giants defeat the Washington Redskins 45-12 in...
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
