ne thing that absolutely irritates me about New York sports is the amount of fake local rivalries we have here. And I was reminded of my hatred of false rivalries last night when the Jets took on the Giants in a preseason game. This happens every year and it’s called the Snoopy Bowl. Because Metlife Stadium is named after Metlife who has Snoopy as their mascot, lol! The Giants won and guess what? It meant absolutely nothing. This of course didn’t stop fans from talking an unwarranted amount of trash talk towards one another. Both teams have enough teams within their own division that they can hate there is absolutely no reason to hate each other.
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Pardon me. No, pardon me!
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Giants-Jets
The Giants and Jets had co-existed in the same stadium for over 40 years until Rex Ryan came along and got Jets fans riled up by saying this a Jets city and the Jets are the best team in the city and whatever. Jets fans being as proactive as they are took this statement as the truth and started goading Giants fans. Before you knew it the Jets were kings of the city because they went to back to back AFC Championship games. This brief run as the city’s “top team” ended one year later when the Giants went on their second Super Bowl run in four years. Since then neither team has made the playoffs which means Jets fans are currently gloating over the fact that they won one more game than the Giants did last season.
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Verdict : Fake Rivalry
Rangers-Islanders
These two fanbases hate each other and I don’t really understand why? It’s like Long Islanders are fundamentally offended by anyone from Manhattan. Being a Rangers fan from Long Island, I never had any issue with the Islanders. Now the Devils can go fuck themselves. The Devils have caused the Rangers pain, the Islanders have caused us all hilarity. And on top of it all the Islanders have been largely irrelevant since the mid 90’s while the Rangers have at least pretended to be relevant during that time span.
Verdict: Fake Rivalry
Knicks-Nets
The only rivalry that should exist here is which team has a more disappointing history. When the Knicks were great in the 70’s and the 90’s, the Nets either didn’t exist or weren’t relevant. When the Nets were an elite team in the 2000’s the Knicks greatest enemy was Isiah Thomas. Now the Nets are in Brooklyn and it’s “Oh shit, we’re taking over the city.” Give me a break, New Jersey is more NYC than Brooklyn is at this point. At least where the Barclay’s Center is anyway. But at least the Knicks and Nets play in the same division so I’ll give them a few points.
Verdict: Almost a rivalry
Mets-Yankees
This didn’t have to become a rivalry. I feel like Mets fans and Yankees fans used to have a semi-respect for each other until interleague play started. Now there is nothing Mets fans hate more than Yankees fans. When the Yankees won in 1996, I rooted for them even though I’m a Mets fan. When the Yankees won in 2009 I wanted to move to another state. Interleague play has made Mets fans hate the Yankees. It’s a major bother and inconvenience to have to play them. Their stadium is annoying, most of their fans are annoying, and their players are downright irritating. Although that should change slightly when Derek Jeter finally retires. On top of everything else the Mets and Yankees actually met in the World Series in 2000 and of course the Yankees won with ease. There would be no going back after that, the Yankees are scum and it will not get any easier to be a Mets fan until the Mets rule the city and the Yankees are in the basement. See you in 2018.
Verdict: Real rivalry even though it’s a no contest.
