Rivalries are something everyone knows about whether you are a sports fan or not. Whether it be your rival in a video game, a rival in a sport, or that guy you have an unspoken rivalry with on the online slots of who can make more in an hour.
However, to someone new to football, it might come as a surprise to hear that teams can have rivalries as well. Sure, when you think about it it makes sense. You have a competitive sport, so of course, people are going to butt heads every now and again.
But it isn’t something you really associate with a team. You might have 2 rival wrestlers or 2 rival boxers, but a whole team and another whole team? That might just be a bit of a new concept to some people.
However, even to people who are seasoned in the sport, how exactly would one define a rivalry? A rivalry is essentially when two teams or athletes are in an intense competition with each other.
Rivalries can have wide-ranging effects on the teams, the players, the coaches, the fans, and the management all to different degrees. Generally, however, rivalries might be gently encouraged because they can boost ratings.
This can happen for a couple of different reasons. One could be simply that they have played many games against one another, and are known as teams that compete with each other.
Another could be some sort of bad blood between players, coaches, or team management. This could lead to athletes pushing themselves more, violent outbreaks on the field, or other incidents. However, it could also just be simple honest competition.
Two athletes are both vying for the title of the best player in the league, and so they bad mouth each other after one of them makes an incredible play or something. Other times it can turn into fights between players.
On a side note, there are those that would link rivalries to military conflict. How true this is is unknown to me, but I just thought it was a funny thing to mention.
Buffalo Bills
The Miami Dolphins and the Buffalo Bills have had a rivalry going for a long time. Back in the 70s, the Dolphins would win 20 games against the Bills showing a somewhat imbalanced rivalry between them.
After player changes on each team, they would go back and forth between one dominating over the other, until recent times when both teams lost some of their great players and the rivalry would fall out of the spotlight.
From then on, although having faded into the background somewhat, The Miami Dolphins and the Buffalo Bills have still had a relatively intense rivalry up until this day. However, some players from the Dolphins have switched to the Bills surprisingly.
New England Patriots
As mentioned above, the Miami Dolphins and the New England Patriots aren’t new to a little rivalry. Over the past 50 years, they would go back and forth with each other, with some famous games being known because of the Dolphins’ victory over the Patriots.
Needless to say, despite their rivalry, both teams are both dominant in the sport and have both pulled undefeated season records (Also known as Perfect Seasons). I don’t see this rivalry going away any time soon.
New York Jets
It is said that the New York Jets are the Miami Dolphins’ biggest and most bitter rivals of them all. Many sports rivalries are field by differences. And there are certainly a lot of differences between New York and Miami.
In addition, a lot of New Yorkers have moved down to Miami, pushing these two teams’ fans right up against each other. One more complaint Miami might have against the Jets is a claim that the team has an arrogant or cocky way about them.
One could show a lot of similarities between the Dolphins-Jets rivalry and the Dolphins-Bills rivalry, however, the Dolphins-Jets rivalry has lasted longer. Still to this day, the rivalry is rather intense with both teams having great victories over the years.
