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It takes quite a bit to top a town like Pittsburgh when it comes to the ire of D.C. faithful. Luckily, we've got two towns you should really love to hate. There's been a bit of disagreement with some of our choices to this point, and since this is a pretty subjective list, it's open to criticism. However, it's certainly hard to argue with our runner-up and geographic rival, New York. The Big Apple has five teams that are conference rivals, and four that have been division rivals at some point or another. Not only do they have a lot of teams, but they have historically good teams, and teams that have met ours in the playoffs. That breeds some contempt between the two cities, no matter which way you look at it. Let's get into it.
Rivalry
Knicks/Wizards doesn't throw much into this mix, and Mets/Nats hasn't been very special since the Expos moved to D.C. The baseball rivalry gets a point due to division rivalry, but that's all we really see there (1 point).
Hockey provides a big punch to the D.C./New York matchup. The Rangers and Islanders were both old Patrick division rivals of the Caps, and Washington has met both teams several times in the playoffs. The Rangers flew past the Caps on their way to the Stanley Cup in 1994 while the Isles beat the Caps a decade earlier to earn their fourth-straight Cup, so the series have been relatively important. That's not to say the Caps haven't put up a fight, sweeping the Isles in '86 and muscling past the Rangers in seven games last season. The Islanders and Caps also seem to go to overtime in almost every matchup nowadays, even though the Caps are the stronger team (2 points).
The Redskins and Giants make up one of the oldest rivalries in American sports. They've been playing since the Redskins were in Boston back in 1932, when the early rivalry featured all-time greats Y.A. Tittle and Sammy Baugh. In the 1980s and early 1990s the two organizations won five Super Bowls and six NFC titles. The most memorable moment between the two teams came in 1985 on Monday Night Football when Lawrence Taylor sacked Joe Theismann and put an early end to his career. The two teams also met in the 1986 NFC Championship game with the Giants winning 17-0. More recently, the Giants have owned the series on the legs of Tiki Barber and Brandon Jacobs. Needless to say, these two teams have played a lot of meaningful games against one another, and that makes for one of the best rivalries in the NFL (2 points).
Success
The Giants won the Super Bowl two seasons ago in one of the biggest upsets of all-time. The Mets have been to a World Series in the last fifteen years (1 point), and the Rangers, despite being horribly mismanaged seem to always be in the playoffs (1 point). The Islanders and Knicks are just terrible.
Loyalty
Loyal New York fans are ridiculously into their teams. They're there through thick and thin. However, considering the international profile of their city, their fanbases tend to be a little more widespread and a little more fickle. I don't recall seeing or hearing from Giants fans before 2007, and depending on the season, you'll see Knicks jerseys or Mets jerseys around, but if they aren't winning, people stop caring very quickly. Furthermore, the Islanders' have been so bad that their ownership is still threatening to move the team. This is an organization that has won FOUR STANLEY CUPS. If we were including the Yankees in this formula (which we didn't since they're irrelevant in every other area), this score would be worse. Talk about freaking bandwagon...(2 points).
Knowledge
I have to admit that New Yorkers tend to know all there is to know about their teams (1 point).
Temperament
You don't have to be rocket scientist to figure out that New Yorkers aren't exactly a friendly bunch. You could start your own YouTube website based upon New York fight clips alone. Hell, New York/Philly fan fights probably make up half the videos on that entire website. Throw in beer and sports and they're downright nasty. To make matters worse, they know how to trash talk AND fight well, so they can be pretty insufferable. Their comments like "the New York Giants are a CLASS organization unlike the Redskins" and "Tom Poti is the worst defenseman in the league" and they get a tad annoying...not to mention the accents (4 points).
Fan Travel
You tend to see them, but not as much as Philly or Pittsburgh, so overall not too bad (2 points).
Team Total: 18 points
How to Survive a New York Encounter
Mention that their bagels are overrated or that 9/11 was an elaborate hoax. Begin discussing NHL Salary Cap issues. Ask how Sean Avery's fashion career is going. When entering a New York City club, hand a toy gun to the bouncer and say "Plax told me to leave this out here for him."
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