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polamalubeast
11-03-2011, 08:50 AM
NFL Films Presents" sits down with Ravens coach John Harbaugh and Steelers coach Mike Tomlin to find out what makes their AFC North rivalry so compelling.

http://www.nfl.com/videos/pittsburgh-steelers/09000d5d823b8c6f/Best-rivalry-in-sports

GodfatherofSoul
11-03-2011, 09:34 AM
Ironic since it's exactly the type of football Herr Goodell is trying to outlaw.

86WARD
11-03-2011, 09:40 AM
NFL easy. All of sports not quite sure.

steeldevil
11-03-2011, 09:59 AM
Best rivalry in NFL? Yes.
Best in all sports? No way.

Hindes204
11-03-2011, 10:29 AM
Maybe for the younger generation...and maybe currently in the NFL I would say yes. But when you talk ALL sports, the history of some rivalries is unmatched. Yankees/Redsox, michigan/Ohio state, Ali/Frazier, duke/north Carolina, lakers/celtics...just off the top of my head



Even in the NFL, the Bears/Packers rivalry has way more history and bitterness than the Steelers/Ravens

steelreserve
11-03-2011, 11:22 AM
Maybe it's the best rivalry at the moment, but I feel like that's mostly a product of both teams being good right now and having a similar style of play right now. It doesn't have the same tradition or ingrained hatred of, say, Yankees-Red Sox, or Cal-Stanford (which I bring up as an example of a college rivalry because it's pretty often that at least one of those teams sucks, but they still hate each other just the same. Not like Duke-UNC or OSU-Michigan, where they're usually also fighting for a conference title).

Anyway, with us against the Ravens, once one team or the other fades a little, has a few sub-.500 seasons, I think the rivalry starts to become less heated.

fansince'76
11-03-2011, 11:41 AM
Anyway, with us against the Ravens, once one team or the other fades a little, has a few sub-.500 seasons, I think the rivalry starts to become less heated.

Agreed - see the Browns.

steeldevil
11-03-2011, 11:42 AM
I think Duke-UNC is the best in all of sports. I am extremely biased though.

Its definitely the best in college sports though. Michigan and Ohio State are not even in the same state...

Edman
11-03-2011, 12:11 PM
Best in the NFL right now? Yes.
Best in the NFL all time? No.
Best in all sports? No.

Baltimore/Pittsburgh is like one young team that hasn't been around for 20 years versus a franchise that has been around since the Depression. Steelers fans hate the Ravens, but they don't consider their season a success to beat the Ravens. Steelers success is doing what needs to be done to win championships. The Ravens base their success around beating the Steelers. Baltimore, while being a contender for a while, they haven't really had much success, seeing a lot of playoff exits and yet to sniff another Super Bowl.

Ravens/Steelers is not on the level of Bears-Packers, UNC/Duke, Ohio State/Michigan, Yankees/Red Sox. It's the hot new thing, but it's not really all that in tuned yet. It needs to last for a long time before we start calling it the greatest rivalries ever.

Ravens/Steelers right now reminds me of Steelers/Oilers in the Central back in the Late 80's-Early 90's. I remember Steelers/Oilers games getting real competitive/nasty in those days, but does anyone really talk about that rivalry anymore?

steelerdude15
11-03-2011, 12:39 PM
I wouldn't say it's the best in all sports, but it's the best in today's NFL. As for all time for all sports, Yankees vs Red Sox would be my pick.

Bluecoat96
11-03-2011, 02:01 PM
Agreed - see the Browns.

One of my favorite things to piss off Browns' fans with is reminding them that try as they might, the real Browns are now in Baltimore and wear purple. I refuse to recognize the expansion Browns as anything other than a crappy expansion team. That whole business of leaving their "history" behind in Cleveland makes me laugh.

Man...do they get mad when I say that.

tube517
11-03-2011, 02:25 PM
Best in the NFL right now? Yes.
Best in the NFL all time? No.
Best in all sports? No.

Baltimore/Pittsburgh is like one young team that hasn't been around for 20 years versus a franchise that has been around since the Depression. Steelers fans hate the Ravens, but they don't consider their season a success to beat the Ravens. Steelers success is doing what needs to be done to win championships. The Ravens base their success around beating the Steelers. Baltimore, while being a contender for a while, they haven't really had much success, seeing a lot of playoff exits and yet to sniff another Super Bowl.

Ravens/Steelers is not on the level of Bears-Packers, UNC/Duke, Ohio State/Michigan, Yankees/Red Sox. It's the hot new thing, but it's not really all that in tuned yet. It needs to last for a long time before we start calling it the greatest rivalries ever.

Ravens/Steelers right now reminds me of Steelers/Oilers in the Central back in the Late 80's-Early 90's. I remember Steelers/Oilers games getting real competitive/nasty in those days, but does anyone really talk about that rivalry anymore?

Steelers/Oilers in the 70's is what it reminds me of (:old:) but yeah, the late 80's too. I still remember Earl "Skoal Brutha" Campbell singlehandedly shredding the 14-2 Steelers in 1978 in a regular season game.

suitanim
11-03-2011, 03:58 PM
How many HBO Specials have been done on rivalries?

One.

Ohio State/Michigan.

Christ, the two states almost went to War over TOLEDO (of all things).

Was, is, and will always be the best. There are just a whole bunch of honorable mentions behind it. Steelers/Ravens is a good one right now.

Count Steeler
11-03-2011, 04:00 PM
Best of all rivalries? No. In hockey it is Toronto/Montreal.

tube517
11-03-2011, 04:42 PM
PIT/BAL is great but doesn't compare to this:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QDoEQqCITvc/SAfPDCXWwlI/AAAAAAAABXg/g6OznsT2aHU/s400/flair-steamboat.jpg :chuckle:

steeldevil
11-03-2011, 06:15 PM
How many HBO Specials have been done on rivalries?

One.

Ohio State/Michigan.

Christ, the two states almost went to War over TOLEDO (of all things).

Was, is, and will always be the best. There are just a whole bunch of honorable mentions behind it. Steelers/Ravens is a good one right now.

HBO did one for Duke-UNC too. Believe it is called "Tobacco Road."

Crow-Magnon
11-03-2011, 10:31 PM
Best in the NFL as of now, but certainly not all-time. I'd say OSU-Michigan is probably tops. Yanks-Sox is a great rivalry, but IMO, baseball rivalries pale in comparison to football, where it's normally either one or two games per year.

suitanim
11-04-2011, 05:22 AM
Duke-UNC is a good one too, no doubt...didn't know they did a second doc. It would have been my second choice, too...call it selection number 1A

Craic
11-04-2011, 03:14 PM
Best of all rivalries? No. In hockey it is Toronto/Montreal.
I was thinking the same thing....
I mean, wrapped up in Toronto/Montreal is the war and defeat of Quebec in 1759 and the following French hatred of British Canada. British Canada is protestant, Qeubec is catholic. You have the supporters of the British Monarchy vs. the continentalist liberal French Canadians.

And if anyone thinks none of that played out in the actual hockey game, there were only two Canadian NHL teams in the league for years after it first started. A French canadian and a British Canadian team. So what long did Toronto play at the beginning of thier games? Yeah, God Save the Queen. In response, Montreal, in 1970, started with O' Canada.

I think that is probably the best rivalry in sports... there is more invested in that rivalry than any other I can imagine, unless you want to talk historically about the USA/USSR Olympic teams.

suitanim
11-04-2011, 04:03 PM
I was thinking the same thing....
I mean, wrapped up in Toronto/Montreal is the war and defeat of Quebec in 1759 and the following French hatred of British Canada. British Canada is protestant, Qeubec is catholic. You have the supporters of the British Monarchy vs. the continentalist liberal French Canadians.

And if anyone thinks none of that played out in the actual hockey game, there were only two Canadian NHL teams in the league for years after it first started. A French canadian and a British Canadian team. So what long did Toronto play at the beginning of thier games? Yeah, God Save the Queen. In response, Montreal, in 1970, started with O' Canada.

I think that is probably the best rivalry in sports... there is more invested in that rivalry than any other I can imagine, unless you want to talk historically about the USA/USSR Olympic teams.

Yeah, but you have to also take into account how many people CARE about the rivalry.

There aren't even enough people in the whole of Canada for this to qualify.

polamalubeast
11-04-2011, 04:20 PM
MTL/BOS is the best rivalry in NHL

PIT/PHI and CHI/VAN(since 2009) is very good too