History FandomRivalry / Sports

* Even UsefulNotes/HorseRacing fans get into this. The biggest split is between those who think [[CoolHorse Man O' War]] was the Greatest Racehorse Ever (won 20 out of 21 starts, never finished below second place, would have won the Triple Crown if his owner had run him in the Derby, carried truly massive handicap weights) and those who think Film/{{Secretariat}} is the Greatest Racehorse Ever (Triple Crown winner, won 16 out of 21 starts, with 3 second-place finishes, one third, and one fourth, broke pretty much every standing race and track record he came across including those of all three Triple Crown races, and perhaps most famously, broke the Belmont Park all-time track record by ''two-and-a-fifths seconds'' [[note]]For non-racing fans, breaking a record by 1/5 of a second is the norm. 2/5 is a bit rarer. Two whole seconds is ''unheard'' of.[[/note]] while winning his Belmont by ''thirty. one. lengths''). The arguments can get [[InternetBackdraft rather heated]].

** The state of Florida has Orlando Magic vs. Miami Heat. The Heat now have a whole new rivalry with the Cleveland Cavaliers, since Usefulnotes/LeBronJames [[InternetBackdraft controversially]] left the latter to join the former--and then went ''back'' to Cleveland. Also, Texas has a three-way fight between Houston, Dallas and San Antonio.

** Simularly, the Houston Texans vs. Tennessee Titans (a.k.a. the former Houston Oilers). The name Bud Adams will garner nothing but absolute contempt in Houston, TX.

** This is probably because of an accident of scheduling: their seasons overlap pretty much perfectly (October-June), and they often play in the same venues (a hockey rink is a bit bigger than a basketball court, but only a bit): in nine of the 12 cities that have both NHL and NBA teams,[[note]]The nine cities are Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, Toronto, Chicago, Dallas, Denver and Los Angeles. Detroit, Minneapolis/St. Paul, and Phoenix all have separate venues for basketball and hockey.[[/note]] they have to share an arena. This naturally makes scheduling a pain in the arse and causes all manner of other problems, as well. The rivalry also can have some nasty racial undertones; for reasons that nobody can adequately explain, ice hockey fandom in the US (but not in Canada, as hockey is so quintessentially Canadian) is almost exclusively White--to the point where the difference between interest in hockey in any given Northern US city and any given Canadian city can be almost entirely attributed to lack of interest among non-Whites[[note]]To detail: Estimates based on the number of NHL-related Google searches originating from a given metropolitan area show that, on average, about 30-60% of people in any given Canadian metro area are regular hockey fans, while only about 15-30% of people are fans in any given metro in the traditional US hockey regions in the North. However, when you discount a Northern US metro's non-White population, the proportion of searches jumps to the 30-60% range.[[/note]]--while basketball is more racially mixed, both on the court (where players of color and especially Black players predominate) and off (where fans of color tend to be slightly more numerous than their proportions of the metropolitan area's population).

** Germany has also its fair share of rivalries, but the most prominent of them all by far is Borussia Dortmund vs Schalke 04, a rivalry known as the Revierderby. Other important rivalries include Bayern-1860 in Munich, Borussia Monchengladbach-1. FC Koln-Bayer Leverkusen, 1. FC Kaiserslautern-Bayern Munich, Fortuna Dusseldorf-1. FC Koln, Eintracht Frankfurt-Kickers Offenbach, Hamburg SV-FC St. Pauli, 1. FC Nurnberg-Greuther Furth, and Lokomotive-Chemie in Leipzig. Everyone will gladly gang up on RB Leipzig, though.

* UsefulNotes/{{Tennis}}: Roger Federer fans vs. Rafael Nadal fans vs. Novak Djokovic fans on which player is superior to the other two, which player faced the weakest/strongest competition, which player is the best on which surface, etc, etc.

** While we're at it, Boston seems to be the center for a lot of American pro sports' biggest rivalries. In addition to Sox-Yankees, there's Celtics-Lakers, Patriots-Colts (often boiled down to Brady-Manning) and the extremely bitter Bruins-Canadiens. For the most part, Red Sox/Celtics/Patriots players don't take their respective rivalries nearly as seriously as the fans. With the Bruins and Canadiens, there will be fighting majors. Lots of them. And blood.
*** Canadiens fans have gone as far as booing the U.S. national anthem when facing the Bruins in a playoff game in Montreal. It wasn't the first time. The media, the Canadiens coach and the Canadiens players all slammed them for it.
*** There's also Pats-Jets, although that ties in more to the general theme of Boston-NYC.

** An incident that is not as famous but probably [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome even more awesome]] occurred between fans of Williamstown and Port Melbourne in the old VFA competition. The two suburbs were located on opposite sides of the mouth of the Yarra River, and a massive old cannon battery sat on the Williamstown foreshore, pointing out to Port Phillip Bay. Williamstown fans managed to ''turn the cannon battery around'' so that it pointed directly at Port Melbourne's home ground.

** In Italy itself, the big rivalries are usually locked within city or regional limits: AC Milan vs FC Internazionale, AS Roma vs SS Lazio, Genoa vs Sampdoria, Chievoverona vs Hellas Verona, Napoli vs Avellino vs Salernitana, Palermo vs Catania, and Juventus vs Torino are the most important of the lot, although in recent years there have also been major trans-regional scuffles such as Juventus vs Napoli, Hellas Verona vs Napoli, and Juventus vs pretty much everyone else - due to their dominance in recent years, leading to a similar case as detailed above with Manchester United, not helped by [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Italian_football_scandal the Calciopoli scandal]] which saw Juventus stripped of their 2004-05 title. Recently, a rivalry has also sparked between Frosinone and Palermo, after a rather controversial Serie B play-off final.

** In Italy itself, the big rivalries are usually locked within city limits: AC Milan vs FC Internazionale, AS Roma vs SS Lazio, Genoa vs Sampdoria, Chievoverona vs Hellas Verona, Palermo vs Catania, and Juventus vs Torino are the most important of the lot, although in recent years there have also been major trans-regional scuffles such as Juventus vs Napoli, Hellas Verona vs Napoli, and Juventus vs pretty much everyone else - due to their dominance in recent years, leading to a similar case as detailed above with Manchester United, not helped by [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Italian_football_scandal the Calciopoli scandal]] which saw Juventus stripped of their 2004-05 title. Recently, a rivalry has also sparked between Frosinone and Palermo, after a rather controversial Serie B play-off final.

** If there's a UrExample, it must be Celtic-Rangers, the Old Firm. This has been going on for all of 121 years, with the two clubs becoming symbols of the deep social and religious divides in Scotland. Also in the UK, there are several London derbies such as Arsenal-Tottenham, West Ham-Millwall, and Fulham-Chelsea; plus there's Newcastle-Sunderland, Man Utd-Man City, Derby-Nottingham Forest, and Villa-Birmingham-West Brom-Wolves. The most potent English rivalry by far though is Manchester United vs Liverpool. The two biggest and most successful English clubs, from rival cities only 26 miles apart, yet bear similarities in the start of their success, dominating periods and even shirt colour.

** If there's a UrExample, it must be Celtic-Rangers, the Old Firm. This has been going on for all of 121 years, with the two clubs becoming symbols of the deep social and religious divides in Scotland. Also in the UK, there are several London derbies such as Arsenal-Tottenham, West Ham-Millwall, and Fulham-Chelsea; plus there's Newcastle-Sunderland, Man Utd-Man City and Villa-Birmingham. The most potent English rivalry by far though is Manchester United vs Liverpool. The two biggest and most successful English clubs, from rival cities only 26 miles apart, yet bear similarities in the start of their success, dominating periods and even shirt colour.

** The state of Florida has Orlando Magic vs. Miami Heat. The Heat now have a whole new rivalry with the Cleveland Cavaliers, since [=LeBron=] James [[InternetBackdraft controversially]] left the latter to join the former--and then went ''back'' to Cleveland. Also, Texas has a three-way fight between Houston, Dallas and San Antonio.
*** Though with the decline of the Orlando Magic (post-Dwight Howard) and the Cavaliers still in the rebuilding stage, the true FandomRivalry is the Miami Heat vs Chicago Bulls. This is especially fueled by Lebron James vs. Derrick Rose debate.

** Argentina's soccer rivalries. Name any of them. It is a very bloody rivalry and a very strong on at that, the most important of these, of course, is Boca Juniors -- River Plate, but there's also Independiente -- Racing de Avellaneda, San Lorenzo -- Huracán, (or Vélez in some cases) Newell's Old Boys -- Rosario Central, (Rosario) Belgrano -- Talleres, (Cordoba) Gimnasia -- Estudiantes (La Plata)... Some rivalries have very dark stories, which often involve fan deaths at battles, a fact which induced to some laws to prevent visitor spectators in lower division matches.
*** Brazil is just as bad with this. In a few cases, a team has many regional rivals (both Rio and São Paulo have 4 big teams). Some supporters create entire websites on dissing the rival. And like in Argentina, the "classic matches" always have fights, sometimes with people dying.

** Germany has also its fair share of rivalries, but the most prominent of them all by far is Borussia Dortmund vs Schalke 04, a rivalry known as the Revierderby. Other important rivalries include Bayern-1860 in Munich, Borussia Monchengladbach-1. FC Koln, 1. FC Kaiserslautern-Bayern Munich, Fortuna Dusseldorf-1. FC Koln, Eintracht Frankfurt-Kickers Offenbach, Hamburg SV-FC St. Pauli, 1. FC Nurnberg-Greuther Furth, and Lokomotive-Chemie in Leipzig.

** If there's a UrExample, it must be Celtic-Rangers, the Old Firm. This has been going on for all of 121 years, with the two clubs becoming symbols of the deep social and religious divides in Scotland. Also in the UK, there are several London derbies such as Arsenal-Spurs and Fulham-Chelsea plus there's Newcastle-Sunderland, Man Utd-Man City and Villa-Birmingham. The most potent English rivalry by far though is Manchester United vs Liverpool. The two biggest and most successful English clubs, from rival cities only 26 miles apart, yet bear similarities in the start of their success, dominating periods and even shirt colour.

** In Italy itself, the big rivalries are usually locked within city limits: AC Milan vs FC Internazionale, AS Roma vs SS Lazio, Genoa vs Sampdoria, Chievoverona vs Hellas Verona, and Juventus vs Torino are the most important of the lot, although in recent years there have also been major trans-regional scuffles such as Juventus vs Napoli, Hellas Verona vs Napoli, and Juventus vs pretty much everyone else - due to their dominance in recent years, leading to a similar case as detailed above with Manchester United, not helped by [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Italian_football_scandal the Calciopoli scandal]] which saw Juventus stripped of their 2004-05 title.

->'''Jay''':"It's crazy when you think about it man. MMA done took over the world. MMA's the biggest shit going right now."
->'''Mark''':"Taking airtime away from my boxing, man."
-->--Wrestling/RingOfHonor

** As [=McLaren=]'s racing credibility has gone down in recent years - especially after their engine supplier switch to Honda in 2015, these days it's mainly Ferrari vs. Red Bull, with Mercedes and Lotus joining in on occasion. As of 2014 Mercedes has become the strongest team in the field so it's now mostly between Ferrari and Mercedes, with Red Bull sometimes joining the fray.

** England versus Germany in international football. Made worse by Germany's habit of knocking England out of tournaments in penalty shootouts. Italy, being Germany's bogey team in international matches, sometimes joins the scuffles as well.

*** The Aussie Rules versus Rugby League rivalry is exacerbated by being a regional rivalry as well, with NRL being mostly Queensland and New South Wales based while the AFL is more popular in the rest of the country. Before digital multichanneling, you couldn't even watch rugby in the western half of the country without shelling out for a pay TV service. The fact that the Melbourne Storm have won at least one NRL Grand Final while the Sydney Swans have won two AFL Grand Finals doesn't dent the AFL-versus-NRL rivalry being part of the broader Melbourne-versus-Sydney rivalry.

** In Italy itself, the big rivalries are usually locked within city limits: AC Milan vs FC Internazionale, AS Roma vs SS Lazio, Genoa vs Sampdoria, Chievoverona vs Hellas Verona, and Juventus vs Torino are the most important of the lot, although in recent years there have also been major trans-regional scuffles such as Juventus vs Napoli, Hellas Verona vs Napoli, and Juventus vs pretty much everyone else - due to their dominance in recent years, leading to a similar case as detailed above with Manchester United.

** In Italy itself, the big rivalries are usually locked within city limits: AC Milan vs FC Internazionale, AS Roma vs SS Lazio, Genoa vs Sampdoria, Chievoverona vs Hellas Verona, and Juventus vs Torino are the most important of the lot, although in recent years there have also been major intra-city scuffles such as Juventus vs Napoli, Hellas Verona vs Napoli, and Juventus vs pretty much everyone else - due to their dominance in recent years, leading to a similar case as detailed above with Manchester United.

** In Italy itself, the big rivalries are usually locked within city limits: AC Milan vs FC Internazionale, AS Roma vs SS Lazio, Genoa vs Sampdoria, Chievoverona vs Hellas Verona, and Juventus vs Torino are the most important of the lot, although in recent years there have also been major intra-city scuffles such as Juventus vs Napoli, Hellas Verona vs Napoli, and Juventus vs pretty much everyone else - due to their dominance in recent years.

** England versus Germany in international football. Made worse by Germany's habit of knocking England out of tournaments in penalty shootouts.