OT: What is your second favorite rivalry in sports?

Submitted by The Dirty Nil on
Assuming everyone on the board would share the same opinion on the number one rivalry, what is the second best?

I'll say Canadiens vs Bruins. Those games have been intense the last several years.

LSAClassOf2000

August 18th, 2015 at 2:43 PM ^

There are better angles of it, I think, but that body check that Shanahan laid out is still one of the best interceptions of a human being in motion that I have even seen. It was pretty graceful in a lot of respects actaully. As I recall, Deadmarsh and Konstaninov went at it almost immediately after all that happened too and that was just the first period. 

csmhowitzer

August 18th, 2015 at 3:09 PM ^

I saw him at a bdubs a few weeks ago. Class act, and a super down to earth guy. I got a picture with him (he asked if I wanted one) and I told him that my first Red Wings experience was watching the Philly series in '97 and how awesome it was to see them sweep. He told me about how all he was thinking is that he had only one guy to beat. He wasn't thinking about winning the game or anything else. He just zoned it all out and got that goal.

My fiancee then invited him to hang out with us sometime. She knows he's like one of my favorite players. He chuckled and was just being polite when he said "maybe if I see you here next time".

If I do see him again, I'm going to ask him about "Le Turtle".

WolvinLA2

August 18th, 2015 at 3:18 PM ^

I used to cheer for UCLA in that rivalry with SC, but over the last few years they've gotten mouthy to the point that they're almost as obnoxious as the SC fans, plus the Kiffin years quieted them down a bit. So I just cheer against whoever is the better team that year.

Ronnie Kaye

August 18th, 2015 at 2:52 PM ^

We are recruiting kids who were in preschool when the tide of the rivalry changed. You can find people with Ph.D's today who had not even hit puberty at the time. That's a lot longer than "only recently." 

I swear it's like some people said OSU's dominance was just a recent thing somewhere around 2005 and still haven't updated the company line yet. The truth is, it's been closer to permanent than any of us ever dreamed it could be in our worse nightmares. OSU's win rate in the rivalry since Tressel was hired is actually five percentage points HIGHER than what ours was vs. Cooper. That is mind-boggling and totally unacceptable.

4godkingandwol…

August 18th, 2015 at 12:54 PM ^

... Each time they play (called El Clasico), they get 3-4 X the average superbowl audience worldwide.  Think about that for a minute.  They play a minimum of 2X per year and usually 3-4 times.  Each one of those gets 3-4X the Super Bowl.  That's a rivalry.

 

EDIT: Just saw this interesting article which refutes the viewership numbers -- http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/is-messi-vs-ronaldo-bigger-than-the….  Interesting read.  Nonetheless, still the best rivlary.