Have sports rivalries between fans gone too far?

[Roger Wilco]

^^
As far as I know it's a little different on the college level in the US. Of course the atmosphere on the top-level, especially in the NFL, NBA and MLB (I've heard it's better in the NHL) is very commercialised and artificial - but, be honest, it's not that much different in the english Premier League either nowadays, is it?

 

[Hermiod]

^^
As far as I know it's a little different on the college level in the US. Of course the atmosphere on the top-level, especially in the NFL, NBA and MLB (I've heard it's better in the NHL) is very commercialised and artificial - but, be honest, it's not that much different in the english Premier League either nowadays, is it?

As a regular attendee of Premier League matches, I would disagree with that. The back and forth between the home and away fans is part of the fun. Normally it's perfectly good natured.

 

[Roger Wilco]

Well, I can't say I'm an expert, because I only watch it on tv (apart from one game I watched at Stamford Bridge two years ago), but the atmosphere seems miserable. Which isn't surprising considering that everyone sits in the stadium. And for example in the Chelsea vs. Liverpool CL League match a few weeks ago, for most of the game there was no chanting whatsoever, you could even hear the players screaming at each other...

Imo, if you want real support from the fans, you have to go lower in the league pyramid in England, or to continental Europe. The Premier League is just too restrictive, and expensive.

 

[Hermiod]

^The reason nobody sang during the Chelsea vs Liverpool game is that those games are always miserable long ball fests and the fans are all asleep.

 

[Daedalus12]

The real reason is that Stamford bridge does have pretty shite atmosphere compared to Anfield or Emirates.

 

[TerriO]

I grew up in Indiana with the Purdue/I.U. rivalry, which prepped me for the whole Yankees/Red Sox thing.

Then I lived in Boston for almost 10 years, most of that time on the very subway line that runs by Fenway Park. I've seen enough of the crappy drunken underbelly of Red Sox fandom to develop a healthy hatred of the Sox. Basically, anything that pisses off those drunken idiots is just ducky by me. I know that isn't representative of all of Red Sox fandom, it's just the portion with which I've had the most interaction. And as anyone who knows me will tell, I enjoy needling the crap out of groups that piss me off just a little too much sometimes.

What cracks me up is so many people assume I'm still a Yankees fan, even though I publicly gave that up what, 4 or 5 years ago now? You don't have to be a Yankees fan to hate the Red Sox, just like you don't have to be a Sox fan to hate the Yankees.

Sure, I still have a Yankees shirt or two, but the only ones I still wear are all shirts that dig on the Red Sox somehow.

 

[Quo Vadimus]

In Scotland we have a very ugly rivalry between Glasgow giants Celtic and Rangers.

Celtic fans are hard line catholics who hate protestants, and of corse, Rangers fans are hard line protestants who hate catholics.
This Glasgow Bigotry Festival is held 4-6 times a year, with the usual aftermath of drink feuled violence in the city after the game, with kickings & stabbings galore. But as these two are Scotlands biggest clubs, with massive fanbase and finacial power, the chiefs of Scottish football turn a blind eye to this disgraceful behaviour.

When they come into our ground to play us, it is a very unpleasant experiance. Celtic wave Irish flags, sing pro-IRA songs, and call you "Orange Bastards". Rangers wave Union flags, sing Rule Britannia, and call you "Fenian Scum".
They can keep this religious and Irish shit out of Scottish football.

BRG

I was watching the MLS All-star game last year (Celtic vs MLS All-stars) and one of the announcers compared the Celtic-Rangers Rivalry to the Alabama-Auburn college football rivalry over here. After reading your post, I have to say I disagree. Celtic-Rangers is a whole order of magnitude crazier than the Alabama-Auburn rivalry.

 

[archeryguy1701]

I don't think rivalries are the problem, just the people who take it way too seriously. I'm a Denver Broncos fan, and I love the rivalry against the Raiders. I love to hate the Raiders. Sure, there is some dislike for the Chargers and Cheifs too, but the Raiders are the number one baddies. I have no issue taking a ribbing after a bad game, and I know that I made sure all the Raiders fans remembered that awesome time out for days afterwards. But would I beat the crap out of someone for making fun of my hat? Nah. As into it as I get and others get, it's just supposed to be a fun thing. There isn't supposed to be any animosity, hard feelings, or violence involved.

 

[Tom Hendricks]

I'm a Mets fan and my best friend is a Red Sox's fan. We play on the same baseball team together in New Jersey. We always go up to Fenway during the summer to catch a few games up there. I always wear my Mets hat and Mr. Mets tee-shirt and I get made fun of a little bit. I think there is no finer place to watch a baseball game in then Fenway. A few of the newer fields are great. However there is nothing like Fenway.

I do agree that I think the so called "rivalry" is to much, but I think that is over all statement about baseball. I think with Fantasy Baseball that to much is made out of everything. It use to be we judge players and teams on a weekly bases, watching this week in baseball and the like. Now every single pitch for every single game is scrutinized to within an inch of its life. I think the two biggest reason for this is Sports Center and Sports Talk Radio. While I think the idea of ESPN was great, getting more sports out there. In the long run, I think it hurts sports even more. Now ESPN has become as important as the sports. The same can be said about Sports Talk Radio. You have broadcasters talk about a player who is hitting .240 or lower calling him awful and the like and now fans think the same way.

Just my 2 cents

 

[Dell Yount]

A good rivalry between buddies can be a lot of fun.
As a life long Washington Redskins fan,
I take all kinds of guff from my Dallas Cowboy friends every year.
Always enjoyable when the my Redskins beat "America's Team."



...America's Team.

 

[wew]

I've spent three years in Italy, and they take rivalry quite serious, in fact when I moved there we were told that wearing specific color combinations of rival teams could be a bit dangerous.

Of course I also believe that at least one war in Central America was kick started by a soccer match.

I've seen college rivalry get quite heated, while attending college in Ohio, I commented that I actually liked the Michigan Wolverines, about 30 seconds late some guy threw a hunting arrow at me, fortunately missing me and sticking in the wall. Furthermore, Woody Hayes loathed and detested Michigan, in fact in some biographies its mentioned he wouldn't even get gas in Michigan since he thought the gas tax might be used for Michigan's football team.

 

[tjkummer]

^^
As far as I know it's a little different on the college level in the US.

There are some good local college rivalries here in the U.S. Sometimes it can get heated.

An example of a major local rivalry, in college basketball, my alma mater, Xavier University, is in Cincinnati, Ohio, and a big rival is the University of Cincinnati, and the two campuses are just a few miles apart, so there's a presence of visiting fans whenever the two schools play. Also, another local rival of Xavier is the University of Dayton, which is only 50 or so miles north of Xavier. I have season tickets for Xavier, and both Cincinnati and Dayton visited Xavier in basketball, and there were a few fans of both schools near me. I did kind that curious, because, for 16 home games, it cost me $1000 per seat for 2 seats ($2000 total), so I was wondering how they got those tickets and who was the traitor who sold their tickets to the enemy. In both cases the opposing fans were courteous and civil.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I am also a fan of the NE Cornhuskers (the only time I regularly watch football), and it always pisses me off when we play Colorado because Colorado fans treat us like shit.

Not so bad when it's a home game, since the section set aside for visiting team's fans is not that big, but when we play *at* Colorado, it's an exercise in frustration, since Colorado fans, to put it mildly, suck. You'd probably get better treatment walking into a bar in Boston singing the praises of Derek Jeter or Joba Chamberlain.

 

[Exit8A]

And as we all think that fans can't get any worse....

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/baseball/mlb/07/07/beating.yanksfan.ap/index.html?cnn=yes

FALMOUTH, Mass. (AP) -- A man was ordered held without bail Monday for allegedly beating a New York man with a baseball bat because he thought the man was a Yankees fan.
As it turned out, the New Yorker allegedly beaten in the land of the Red Sox isn't even a big baseball fan.
Police say Robert Correia, 20, and others spotted a car with New York license plates leaving a fireworks display Saturday. The group approached the car and began yelling about the Yankees, according to the police report.