Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

NFL Top 10 Made the following list of best team vs team rivalries in 2010 I believe:

10. 49ers-Cowboys
9. Cowboys-Eagles
8. Colts-Patriots
7. Bears-Packers
6. Ravens-Steelers
5. Steelers-Cowboys
4. Browns-Bengals
3. Jets-Patriots
2. Raiders-Steelers
1. Eagles-Giants

I should clarify that there are plenty of episodes (particularly from 2015 onward) that have more comics and people with no connection to the NFL or covering it interviewed than this one did.

But as far as the actual list itself goes, I would have some issues with it.

Most notably Bears and Packers being too low, and Browns vs Bengals being too high.

Also, in the first Best of the Rest segment, Cowboys-Redskins they said was not on the list because it hadn’t been relevant in years (that may be so, but I think it could’ve made a good ten).

I would take issue with that explanation given that a few of these they explicitly zeroed in on one period of time (ex: Correct me if I’m forgetting something but who thinks of a time that isn’t the 70’s when the Raiders and Steelers are brought up together, similarly who thinks of Colts-Patriots outside of the 2000’s when Peyton Manning and Tom Brady were their quarterbacks?)

Also, they brought up Browns-Bengals clearly for the history behind how it formed (I.e. Paul Brown leaves his old team to go across the state). Well Cowboys-Redskins has the aspect of a new team encroaching on the South when the Cowboys become an expansion team, so there’s that too.

I have no issues with number one; Eagles-Giants is a great rivalry (enough that they gave it its own), so at least there’s that.

Either way, that’s probably the NFL Top 10 list I’d disagree with the most.

SeahawkFever wrote: ↑Fri Sep 18, 2026 6:44 pm
5. Steelers-Cowboys

Pathetic that that non-rivalry made the list due to two Super Bowl matchups and a bandwagon fans aspect. As for the former- why not put Redskins vs Dolphins on the list? As for the latter, 1970s fans racing to jump on one of the bandwagons does not make it a rivalry between the actual teams.

JWL wrote: ↑Sat Sep 19, 2026 10:44 am

SeahawkFever wrote: ↑Fri Sep 18, 2026 6:44 pm
5. Steelers-Cowboys

Pathetic that that non-rivalry made the list due to two Super Bowl matchups and a bandwagon fans aspect. As for the former- why not put Redskins vs Dolphins on the list? As for the latter, 1970s fans racing to jump on one of the bandwagons does not make it a rivalry between the actual teams.

They also mentioned Super Bowl 30, but point taken.

As for the Skins and Dolphins, they also played in two Super Bowls, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone referring to that as a rivalry. Correct me if I’m wrong.

Vikings-Packers belongs on the list. There’s a reason that it’s almost always a doubleheader or prime time game.

SeahawkFever wrote: ↑Fri Sep 18, 2026 6:44 pm
Also, in the first Best of the Rest segment, Cowboys-Redskins they said was not on the list because it hadn’t been relevant in years (that may be so, but I think it could’ve made a good ten).

Well Cowboys-Redskins has the aspect of a new team encroaching on the South when the Cowboys become an expansion team, so there’s that too.

Clint Murchison Jr. had the rights to Washington's fight song, "Hail to the Redskins". He used the copyright as leverage to force Washington owner George Preston Marshall to change his vote and approve the new Dallas franchise. I believe Marshalls wife wrote the lyrics

Jets/Parriots isn’t even the best AFC East rivalry

What about Jets/Dolphins or Bills/Dolphins?

SeahawkFever wrote: ↑Sat Sep 19, 2026 11:50 am

JWL wrote: ↑Sat Sep 19, 2026 10:44 am

SeahawkFever wrote: ↑Fri Sep 18, 2026 6:44 pm
5. Steelers-Cowboys

Pathetic that that non-rivalry made the list due to two Super Bowl matchups and a bandwagon fans aspect. As for the former- why not put Redskins vs Dolphins on the list? As for the latter, 1970s fans racing to jump on one of the bandwagons does not make it a rivalry between the actual teams.

They also mentioned Super Bowl 30, but point taken.

As for the Skins and Dolphins, they also played in two Super Bowls, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone referring to that as a rivalry. Correct me if I’m wrong.

Correct. Redskins/Commanders vs Dolphins is not a rivalry. I don't think Steelers-Cowboys should be considered a top 10 rivalry because of two games in the 1970s albeit highly important ones and a rush to jump on the bandwagons by New York metro region residents and other people living nowhere near Pittsburgh or Dallas because they had no local team or their local team stunk and/or home games did not get shown on TV. My recollection of that program was it focused on the 1970s. Of course, those teams did meet for a third Super Bowl but I think whatever the voters for that show (or the producers; not sure if there was an actual vote or not) decided constituted a "rivalry" between the teams focused on the 1970s.

JWL wrote: ↑Sun Sep 20, 2026 10:48 am

SeahawkFever wrote: ↑Sat Sep 19, 2026 11:50 am

JWL wrote: ↑Sat Sep 19, 2026 10:44 am

Pathetic that that non-rivalry made the list due to two Super Bowl matchups and a bandwagon fans aspect. As for the former- why not put Redskins vs Dolphins on the list? As for the latter, 1970s fans racing to jump on one of the bandwagons does not make it a rivalry between the actual teams.

They also mentioned Super Bowl 30, but point taken.

As for the Skins and Dolphins, they also played in two Super Bowls, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone referring to that as a rivalry. Correct me if I’m wrong.

Correct. Redskins/Commanders vs Dolphins is not a rivalry. I don't think Steelers-Cowboys should be considered a top 10 rivalry because of two games in the 1970s albeit highly important ones and a rush to jump on the bandwagons by New York metro region residents and other people living nowhere near Pittsburgh or Dallas because they had no local team or their local team stunk and/or home games did not get shown on TV. My recollection of that program was it focused on the 1970s. Of course, those teams did meet for a third Super Bowl but I think whatever the voters for that show (or the producers; not sure if there was an actual vote or not) decided constituted a "rivalry" between the teams focused on the 1970s.

To be fair to the people who made that show, in the comment section, someone said that they thought that free agency in 1993; and the general increase in turnover of players on teams has hurt team on team rivalries, and the 70’s are before free agency as we know it now, so I can see why they would have some more rivalries then, than in later decades.

But they may have neglected other eras.

For this rivalries list, are we talking about historically or currently, as in today? The OP says in 2010, so...

In regards to the Steelers-Cowboys of the 1970s there seemed to me to be a level of animosity between the two teams that didn't exist between the Redskins and Dolphins, plus the fact that the Redskins-Dolphins two SBs were 10 years apart vs. 3 years for the Steelers-Cowboys.