An Open Letter

Football, Major Sports

Posted by SK, January 26, 2008 - 12:12 pm

Dear New York and New England-area Sports Fans:

First of all, congratulations are in order. Your Giants and your Patriots are the last teams standing after surviving the rigors of the 2007 NFL season. So even though it may pain me to say it, congratulations.

Now, as you were sitting in your Barcalounger enjoying last week’s NFC title game, you probably noticed a faint rumbling sound as Lawrence Tynes’s kick went through the uprights at Lambeau Field. Well, it wasn’t the chili dog you had for lunch, my friends. That rumbling was the collective groan of the 260-some million Americans who live outside the Northeast Corridor. Because as the referees raised their arms to signal the winning field goal on that frigid Wisconsin night, those 260-some million came upon the realization that we would once again be forced to witness another contest between the New York and Boston areas.

Yes, between your two fair cities you have 30 World Series titles, 18 NBA Championships, 10 NFL Championships, and 13 Stanley Cups. Bambino, Bird, Beckett, Brady, Broadway Joe. Bill Parcells, Bill Russell, Bill Bellichick, Bill Buckner. A-Rod, Mookie, LT, the Clipper, Clyde Frazier. Game 6, Wide right, the bloody sock… we get it. Sure, people in New York and Boston are excited, and deservedly so. But when the 260-some million people in this great country, from Laredo, Texas to Kalamazoo, Michigan, and from Homestead, Florida to Olympia, Washington, are expected to have an opinion on this rivalry, I have to call horseshit.

Oh, the talking heads in Bristol would have you believe that this is the be-all, end-all of rivalries. But I refuse to believe that this media-fueled enmity between these two cities is the only one that matters in all of sports.

You’ll say, “oh it’s because of the rich history”. Well, Army has been playing Navy since 1890. The first sports matchup between Boston and New York (a Red Sox-Yankees game, of course) wasn’t played until 11 years later. Proximity to each other, perhaps? Well, 216 miles separate New York City and Boston. Green Bay is closer to Chicago (207 miles), Pittsburgh is closer to Cleveland (133 miles), and San Antonio is closer to Houston (197 miles). Direct competition for the postseason? Well, you would think so. But let’s break that down by sport.

Boston and New York are in direct competition in baseball’s AL East, the NBA’s Atlantic Division, and the NFL’s AFC East. The AL East has not been much of a rivalry - the Yankees have pretty much dominated, with 39 pennants to 12 for the Sox. They’ve met 3 times in the postseason, with the Yankees winning two of those. Someone (probably a Yankee fan) once said that this rivalry is like the rivalry between a hammer and a nail. The same thing can be said for the NBA’s Atlantic Division. Not much of a rivalry. The Celtics 25 own division titles, compared to 8 for the Knicks, and are 8-5 head to head in postseason. In the NFL’s AFC East, the Patriots have won 11 division titles and the Jets 4, with the Pats winning the only postseason matchup. However, prior to 1996, the Patriots had only won the division 3 times, meaning both teams were almost non-factors in this division until very recently.

So you’ve got two one-sided “rivalries” and one non-existent one. But since it’s not such a big deal, why does it seem that way? Well, with over a half-dozen all sports cable TV channels, sports talk radio, and the blogosphere, we’ve got this 24 hour sports news cycle. All this airtime and all this web space, and nothing to fill it with. And think about it - Bristol, CT sits almost smack dab in the middle between your two fair cities. They’re filling airtime with what they know best, and in the process they’ve manufactured and force fed this “rivalry” to the rest of us. It’s to the point now where a Google search of “Boston New York rivalry” returns 451,000 hits. These days, I wouldn’t put it past them to try to make it seem that even something like this matters.

So Giants fans and Patriots fans, enjoy Super Bowl XLII. May the best team win. Just don’t expect the rest of us to believe the hype, and don’t expect us to care as much as you do.  We’ll be watching for the commercials and Tom Petty. And maybe eating a chili dog.

Yours Sincerely,

260-some Million Americans

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