Rivalries in Professional Sports

While playing around on ESPN today I saw a quote that instantly made me cringe. The quote was from current New York Yankee Kevin Youkilis. “I'm a Yankee today and I'm excited," Youkilis muttered, "I'm proud to be a Yankee.” You see, the other day Kevin stated how proud of a Boston Red Sock he was and how he will “always be a Red Sock.” For those of you who do not know Youkillis played eight seasons for the Boston Redsox from 2004 until midway through last season when he was traded to the Chicago Whitesox. This offseason Youkillis signed a one year, twelve million dollar contract to play for the Yankees, the Redsox arch rivals. 

The Redsox and the Yankees have a long hated rivalry that can be traced back primarily to the day the Redsox sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees. I’m sure before that day they didn’t much care for each other either, but that day caused the hatred level to climb unprecedented heights. Since that day the two teams and fan bases have loved to hate each other. 

Because of the history between to two teams I cringed when I saw an ex-Redsox, who had hated the Yankees for so long, say he was proud to be one. The sad thing about me cringing is that I am not a fan of either team. I cringed because, for really the first time it struck me, sports rivalries will never be like they were. 

Being a fan of the Washington Redskins myself, I tend to hate the Dallas Cowboys the most. The chant, “We Want Dallas,” is very popular among us fans; however, the same power it holds today is not the same power it held when it first began.  As fans we hate the Dallas Cowboys, but do we really hate the Cowboys, or do we hate their symbol and what it stands for more than we hate the players themselves? This can be a question asked to all fans of professional sports about their rivals. 

In this day of free agency players change teams more than a Priest prays. This makes it very difficult to hate a player with the same passion knowing that someday he could wind up playing for your favorite team. Because this same hate towards the players cannot be expressed as they were before free agency, the rivalry cannot and will not be the same. 

Before free agency fans of the Redskins could easily hate Roger Staubach with a passion because they knew there was little chance he would end up playing for the Redskins. Today, the Redskins fan will “hate” Cowboys players, only while they are wearing the symbol of the team. A prime example of this could be Stephen Bowen. Bowen is currently a defensive lineman for the Redskins, though he played several years with the Cowboys, fans of the Redskins have found a special place in their heart for one of the captions of their team. When rivalries were in their prime, players could not have switched sides of the same rivalry and be as easily welcomed. 

A second reason that rivalries will never be the same is because of the players themselves. It was very common for players during that period before free agency to have played their entire careers with one team. This caused the players to take a much greater pride in the team they played for and a much greater hate in their rivals. Pride cannot be as easily attained now when a player plays in a League for ten seasons, but plays for six different teams. How is a player now supposed to gain the same level of hate for one individual team in a shorter period of time? I’ll tell you, he can’t. 

These rivalries, in all these professional sports have been tarnished, to a certain degree forever. The hate for a certain team is no longer directed towards the players as it was back in the 60s, 70, 80s, and early 90s, the hate now is directed at the symbol being worn on the uniform. The hate fans have for fans of their rivals remain the same; however, the purity of rivalries in sports is no more.  Those of us who were born and became fans after will never be able to experience the same rivalries that are parents did. 

Thank you, free agency, for ruining the purity of rivalries in professional sports.

-JM