Tell The Truth - 42 and Race Movie Review

As such a widely consumed vehicle of entertainment, the film industry can encapsulate collective norms, and shape how people look at race relations. Movies like 42 and Race explored established societal hierarchies and Hollywood’s construction and reproduction of power relationships through character’s race. Some film critics condemned the movies for their historical inaccuracies, dramatization of the facts, and historical omissions, such as the fact that 42 completely ignored that Robinson was not the only black player on the Dodgers roster in 1947 (pitcher Dan Bankhead was also on the team in Brooklyn). 

Films that attempt to rigorously portray circumstances accurately can still obscure reality with a general untruthful representation of racial opinions. On the other hand, dramatized and fictionalized scenes in 42 and Race removed the independent identity of Jackie Robinson and Jesse Owens, and embraced the role of the white savior coming to the aid of the black athlete. Fictionalized creations of reality in these films also tended to imply a heroic democratization of sports due to the actions of the athletes, which obscured the maintained prevalence of systematic racism in society. 

42 and Race became problematic pieces of cinema, not from their factual inaccuracies, but when their stories unsettled a truthful representation of structural racism and removed the independent agency of the black athlete to instill their own place in society

42 Movie Trailer

Race Movie Trailer

In 42, Jackie Robinson was turned into a stoic, human myth rather than a complex figure that had to deal with the difficulties of baseball integration. The film failed to contextualize black discrimination in the majors by implying that Robinson’s heroic story could obscure the racial injustices of the past. Dave Zirin complained in the The Nation, “To tell his tale as one of individual triumph through his singular greatness is to not tell the story at all” because the film untruthfully conflated Robinson’s eventual baseball acceptance with overall black social integration. 

Despite accurately portraying the racist vitriol that Phillies manager Ben Chapman shouted at Robinson, the film failed to deftly show the subtle mechanisms of racial discrimination in the 1940s. By creating one of the film’s climatic scenes around teammate Eddie Stanky confronting Chapman, the manager seemed like the singular focus of white hatred against Robinson. In the New York Times, A.O. Scott mentioned how Chapman’s actions were “not an exception to the rule, but an especially ugly instance of it." The film underemphasized the systematic racism that black athletes faced by implicitly creating a sole representative image of that racism. 

Ben Chapman (played by Alan Tudyk) subjected Robinson to extreme racist vitriol.

Some of the film’s dramatizations did reinforce truthful characterizations of Jackie’s independent agency. Although the scene where Robinson was chased by a mob in Wendell Smith’s car was not strictly accurate, he told him “I don’t like needing someone to be there for me.” Jackie’s expressionism was not sullied by a need to show himself as the archetypical heroic figure that suppressed his black rage at the urgency of society. Unlike the rest of the film, Jackie was able to show his raw emotions. The truthfulness of Jackie’s complex humanism was shown through artificial manifestation of reality to symbolize that message.

Nonetheless, the movie largely fictionalized Robinson as a manifestation of Branch Rickey, a player that embodied Rickey’s sentiment of having “the guts not to fight back,” rather than espousing his own identity. As Robinson melted down in the clubhouse after hearing Chapman’s verbal abuse, it was only when Rickey came as the white savior to restore order did the seemingly helpless Robinson return to the field. By portraying Robinson’s emotional breakdown away from the public spectacle, and returning him to silent, individual suffering on the field, the film removed the truthfulness of Robinson’s active attempts to challenge and subvert systematic American racism as a black activist. 

Branch Rickey (played by Harrison Ford) coming to "rescue" Jackie Robinson (played by Chadwick Boseman) and return him to the field for the Dodgers. 

Zirin suggested that the movie followed “the classical Hollywood formula of heroic individual seeds obstacle… obstacle is overcome… the end.” By starting the film with Rickey’s dramatized proclamation, “I’m going to do it,” 42 ensured that the audience would not see Robinson’s identity and heroism as independent from Rickey’s own self-proclaimed courage.

Similarly, when Pee Wee Reese put his arm around Jackie during a ballgame in Cincinnati, a historically contested moment, the dramatized scene showed Reese giving Robinson the courage to continue to play and the transference of agency to Jackie only through the white athlete. 

Pee Wee Reese (played by Lucas Black) putting his arm around Jackie Robinson in Cincinnati.

Even if the film accurately reflected Robinson’s devotion to Ricky and his promise that, “I won’t let you down,” it still created an untruthful narrative of Robinson lacking his own independent agency. For example, years later, Robinson exalted the black power salute of track athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the 1968 Olympics, saying that he took delight in the fact that they were proud to be black. Ultimately, the movie dissociated Robinson from a collective black experience, implying that his internal emotions were an external construction, and making him, as A.O. Scott argued, “the least interesting character” in the film.

In the movie Race, director Stephen Hopkins did a commendable job of establishing Owens’s self-defined identity. The movie gave considerable thought to depicting Owens not merely as a product of the projections of his external environment, but based upon how he decided to present himself. 

When contemplating the request from the NAACP to boycott the Olympics, Owens told Coach Snyder, “Let me make the decision on my own.” Although the relationship between the athlete and the coach was clearly sentimentalized, Owens showed his desire to dictate his own actions and athletic body. Ella Taylor reiterated that idea in NPR as she said, “The point of view belongs not to Coach, but to Owens.” Unlike the mythic glorification of Robinson in 42, Race did not shy away from divulging Owens’s failures to stay faithful to Ruth Solomon, as Stephen Holden recognized in The New York Times when he said, “Owens, although usually well-behaved, can at times also be defiant, willful, and immature.”

Jesse Owens (played by Stephan James) won the 100-meter dash, 220-meter dash, the 220-yard low hurdlers, and the long jump at the NCAA Championships in both 1935 and 1936 under Coach Snyder (played Jason Sudeikis).

Race still lacked a truthful representation of the violent strand of racism present in the 1930s. As Race conspicuously displayed, a film can tell a factually correct story, and yet, still be devoid of an overall truthful illustration of the black experience. Although the movie accurately showed Owens being forced into the back of a bus, and showering only after white athletes, the film treated the racist behavior towards the black community as a mere inconvenience, rather than as a systematic repression. As the crowds wildly cheered for Owens during the movie, it obscured the "unforgivable blackness" of Owens.

Moreover, the film made it seem as though the ideology of white supremacy in Germany was isolated to what Carl Luz called the “insane Nazi government,” and its attempts to depict both domestic and foreign subjugation made it seem as though it was comparing forms of oppression. Race dissociated the German public from their racist dogma, as film director Leni Riefenstahl reinforced to Owens “The world can never forget what you did.” 

At the end of the movie, when a young white boy asked Owens for his autograph, the film implied that the future of race relations was changing simply because of Owens’s victory, although his own future was later constrained by a segregated American society.

Best Early Season Non-Conference College Football Games

Week 1

Michigan at Utah at 8:30 on Fox Sports 1 on Thursday, September 3rd:

He is back everybody! Jim Harbaugh is back in college football!

I say this in the nicest way possible, but Jim Harbaugh is a bit of a lunatic. His intensity level in all facets of life reaches that of only Tom Thibodeau. There is no denying that his personality is a little eccentric and unconventional, even for somebody that coaches sports for a living. Everybody knows that Harbaugh's insistence on going about things a certain way on the field can wear his players out, not to mention how his temperament and unrelenting manner off the field can get on the nerves of the administrators and executives around him (just ask 49ers CEO Jed York and GM Trent Baalke about that).

However, Harbaugh has won everywhere he has coached, and he dramatically improves the makeup and composition of his teams by bringing in a sense of toughness and demanding excellence through intra-squad competition.

The Wolverines have undergone an identity crisis since the end of Lloyd Carr's 13-year run in Ann Arbor. The 3-3-5 defense under Rich Rodriguez was a complete mess during his three-year tenure, and the Wolverines won fewer games then the previous season in each of Brady Hoke's successive seasons at the school.

Harbaugh is a "Michigan man" as they love to hear in Ann Arbor. He played under the great Bo Schembechler from 1983 to 1986 and lead Michigan to the Fiesta Bowl and a #2 ranking in 1985 and to the Rose Bowl in 1986, a year in which he was the Big Ten Player of the Year and finished third in the Heisman Trophy voting behind Miami quarterback Vinny Testaverde and Temple running back Paul Palmer. His dad, Jack Harbaugh, was also the defensive backs coach at Michigan from 1973 to 1979. If Jim Harbaugh wins big at Michigan, they will gladly put up with his peculiar and intense character.

The first year for Harbaugh, though, could be his most difficult one at the school. Remember that Bob Stoops was 7-5 in his first year at powerhouse Oklahoma in 1999 (one of his only four non double-digit winning seasons in 16 years at the school), Mike Gundy was 4-7 in his opening season at Oklahoma St. in 2005 and 1-7 in conference play (from 2008 to 2011, Oklahoma St. was one of only six teams along with Alabama, TCU, Oregon, Boise St., and Virginia Tech to finish in the top 25 of the coaches poll all four years), and Nick Saban was 7-6 and 4-4 in the SEC in his first year at Alabama in 2007 (since then his record is 84-11 at the school with 3 National Championships).

I suspect Harbaugh to face an initial struggle at Michigan as he attempts to instill a new identity and re-shape the roster to fit his liking. Michigan has a question mark at the quarterback position heading into 2015, and Brady Hoke struggled to recruit the type of top-level talent that the school had become accustomed to grabbing in the past (Hoke had the #31 recruiting class in 2014 and Jim Harbaugh's late arrival in Ann Arbor pushed Michigan's 2015 class down to #50 according to Rivals).

I remember going to the Michigan-Utah game back in 2008 when Michigan put up a valiant fight in the Big House but lost to the then-Mountain West Utes 25-23, a team with Paul Kruger and Sean Smith that went on to finish 13-0 and beat Alabama in the Sugar Bowl 31-17. I see a similarly closely tested affair this year from Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City.

The Wolverines quarterback battle is likely going to come down to lefty Shane Morris and Iowa graduate transfer Jake Rudock, who threw for 311 yards and 2 touchdowns last season in a game against Wisconsin for the Hawkeyes. Whoever starts for Michigan is going to have to deal with a resilient Utah front seven, which includes promising young defensive linemen Hunter Dimick and Lowell Lotulelei (the younger brother of Star Lotulelei). In fact, Utah led all of college football last season with a combined 55 team sacks, including a 10 sack game on Brett Hundley in a 30-28 upset victory over UCLA. Although the Utes will not be able to make up for the loss of Nate Orchard and his nation leading 19 sacks with one player, they bring back almost everyone else on defense.

Utah is lucky to bring back consistent senior quarterback Travis Wilson, dynamic running back Devontae Booker, who was second in the Pac-12 with 1,512 rushing yards in 2014, and four of their five starting offensive lineman from last season. As great as a grab it was for Michigan to bring Harbaugh back to Ann Arbor, I like the Utes to hang him a loss in his first game at the school.

Texas at Notre Dame at 7:30 on NBC on Saturday, September 5th:

Amongst FBS programs, Notre Dame has the second most wins in college football history with 882, and Texas is third in that category with 881. The Fighting Irish have the best winning percentage amongst any NCAA football program at .732 while the Longhorns are tied with Nebraska for sixth at an impressive .712. Notre Dame's 7 Heisman Trophy winners (Angelo Bertelli, Lohnny Lujack, Leon Hart, Johnny Lattner, Paul Hornung, John Huarte, Tim Brown) is tied with Ohio St. for the most in college football and Texas is one of only ten schools with multiple winners of the award over the last 40 years along with Ohio St., Michigan, Florida, Florida St., Auburn, Oklahoma, USC, Nebraska, and Miami (running backs Earl Campbell in 1977 and Ricky Williams in 1998 won it for UT). Notre Dame's 22 total championships are the most in the FBS and Texas's 9 are in the top 10. The Fighting Irish have had 33 unanimous All-Americans, the most of any program, while the Longhorns are not far behind with 22 such selections. Notre Dame has had 485 players selected in the NFL draft including 63 in the first round, which are second and third most in the country respectively. Under head coaches Darrell Royal and Fred Akers from 1957 to 1986, the Longhorns finished in the top 5 of the AP poll an 12 times, playing in 13 Cotton Bowls over that stretch. Notre Dame is so big that they do not even need to be apart of a conference while ESPN agreed to a 20 year, 300 million dollar deal with the University of Texas to set up the Longhorn Network, largely centered around UT football.

History, tradition, legacies, huge fan bases, and immense financial backing from supporters will be very present when the schools square off in South Bend on September 5th.

Some of the particulars of the game have to be overlooked if you want to be interested in it. Charlie Strong dismissed anybody that talked at Texas in his first year at the program, as 9 players left the team for legal or disciplinary reasons. Strong wants to create a new culture of accountability with the Longhorns, but it is going to take time for that to happen.

Texas's 6-7 season last year was just the third time in over 20 years that they finished below .500, and Tyrone Swoopes struggled to ever get the offense going once he took over for David Ash at QB (Ash's career came to an end during the season because of multiple concussions). Strong has the management capabilities and heavy resources at UT to build a roster full of disciplined players like he did at Louisville, but it is not there yet.

The ghost of Mack Brown's recruiting past still haunts Texas. He tried to recruit eventual Heisman Trophy winners Robert Griffin III and Johnny Manziel at defensive back. Brown did not pursue future number one pick Andrew Luck, who played high school football in Houston. He did not offer a scholarship to another eventual Heisman Trophy winner James Winston, who said, "If I'd gotten the offer from Texas, I'd be going to Texas right now. But I never got offered." Texas's problems run deeper than the QB position, but they have not been able to find a good signal-caller since Colt McCoy left.

Meanwhile, Brian Kelly ran Everett Golson out of town just 3 years after the quarterback led the Fighting Irish to the BCS National Championship Game against Alabama. For as magical as that run was with Tyler Eifert, Zack Martin, Louis Nix, Stephon Tuitt, Manti Te'o, and Manti Te'o's fake girlfriend, that was the only time that the Fighting Irish have finished in the top 10 of the coaches poll in more than 20 years. To make things even worse, Notre Dame is still paying Charlie Weis more then Brian Kelly (the Fighting Irish initially paid Weis $6.6 million back in 2009 when he was fired and they have given him $2.1 million for four straight years as a part of their separation agreement. How did Weis get such a sweet deal you may be wondering? Back in 2005, Notre Dame started the season surprisingly well in Weis's first year, including a victory over #3 Michigan in Ann Arbor. As NFL rumors began to swirl around the former Jets and Patriots offensive coordinator, ND freaked out and gave him a ridiculous 10-year deal after 7 games in charge).

Obviously, this is not your father's Texas or your father's Notre Dame, but this game still means something between the two powerhouse college football programs.

Despite having a very tough schedule with games against Georgia Tech, Clemson, USC, and Stanford, Notre Dame has enough talent to be a sleeper top 10 team by the end of the season, especially if they can start off the season with a momentum building win over the Longhorns. I really like the Fighting Irish defense, which should be more reminiscent of the stout 2012 unit than the defense from last season that was 84th in the nation in points allowed. ND is getting a lot of players back on defense from injury and suspension, including cornerback KeiVarae Rusell and defensive end Ishaq Williams from academic suspension and Jarrett Grace from the knee injury that he suffered in 2013 against Arizona State. They return 19 starters from last season's team, and nearly their entire defense.

Texas has just 5 returning defensive starters (only Kansas is bringing back less players on that side of the ball in the Big 12). As you would expect, the Longhorns have plenty of young talent and speed, especially after bringing back running back Jonathan Gray and defensive back Duke Thomas. However, they still have a lot of holes to fill on both sides of the ball and a question mark at the quarterback position with a battle in camp ensuing between Tyrone Swoopes and redshirt freshman Jerrod Heard. This could be an intriguing game between two pillars of the sport.

Wisconsin vs Alabama at 8:00 on ABC on Saturday, September 5th in the Cowboys Classic from AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas:

Alabama lost a lot of key players from their 2014 college football playoff team. Amari Cooper, a Fred Biletnikoff Award winner for best college football wide receiver and a Heisman Trophy Finalist after setting school records in catches with 124, receiving yards with 1,727, and touchdowns with 16, was selected 4th overall in the NFL Draft. Landon Collins, one of only three unanimous All-American defensive backs and who led the team in tackles and was tied for the team lead in interceptions, was picked by the Giants in the 2nd round. T. J. Yeldon was also selected in the 2nd round, a running back that rushed for more than 970 yards and 11 touchdowns in all three of his seasons in Tuscaloosa, which is something that Kenneth Darby, Glen Coffee, Mark Ingram, Trent Richardson, and Eddie Lacy never did at the school. Blake Sims, who broke the school's single-season passing record, is gone. Alabama is also not returning three of its starting offensive linemen from last year, making it one of only three teams in the SEC along with Florida and Mississippi St. to have only one or two returning offensive linemen.

With all that being said, Alabama is still the SEC favorite to represent the conference in the College Football Playoff, and their season will be considered a failure if they do not make it back there. Every school in the country loses pieces in any given season due to the NFL Draft, transfers, and graduates (just look at Bama's week one opponent, Wisconsin, who is losing Doak Walker Award Winner and Heisman Finalist running back Melvin Gordon and consensus first team All-Big Ten offensive tackle Rob Havenstein).

However, Alabama may be the only school in the country that can recover year after year from all of its departures because of the boatload of five and four star players that the team is able to recruit every year. According to Rivals, Alabama had the number one recruiting class in 2012, 2013, and 2014, and the Tide were second in the team rankings in 2015 behind USC. While landing top recruits does not guarantee success by any means - Georgia had the #7 class in 2008, #6 in 2009, #15 in 2010, #5 in 2011, #12 in 2012, #12 again in 2013, #7 in 2014, and the #6 class in 2015 and has not made a BCS Bowl game or College Football Playoff over that stretch - it does make life a lot easier.

We all know that Wisconsin loves to run the football. Even though I think that new head coach Paul Chryst will bring a little more balance to a Wisconsin offense that could barely move the football if it was not in Gordon's hands last season, the Badgers are still going to try to pound the rock.

The problem with that strategy in against the Crimson Tide is that Alabama's front seven is downright scary. It all starts right up the middle with A'Shawn Robinson and his teammate Jarran Reed, two massive defensive tackles for the Tide that make up the best interior tandem in college football. Robinson is going to be a first round pick if he comes out after his junior season, especially since he is versatile enough to play nose tackle or defensive end in Bama's usual three down linemen sets. If Wisconsin's offensive line can somehow push Robinson out of the way, Reuben Foster and Reggie Ragland will be there to clean anything up in the Tide's linebacker unit. Ragland had the second most tackles on the team last season, and he is Alabama's most athletic player in their stout front seven, as he showed with his jumping interception against Kenny Hill and Texas A&M.

The problem for Wisconsin is that the Alabama front seven is not going to surrender the amount of rushing yards that the Badgers need to make up for their sub-par passing game. Joel Stave is a serviceable quarterback, but he is not going to win a team any games on his own, which is a problem because, as Ohio St. showed in the College Football playoff last year, the Alabama secondary is susceptible to big plays down the field. To make matters worse, the Badgers are losing both guards and an offensive tackle from the front that helped Gordon rush for 2,587 yards and 29 touchdowns in 2014.

Unless Wisconsin pulls a quickie on Nick Saban and Alabama and substitute in the Cowboys terrific offensive line in "Jerry World," I fully expect a Crimson Tide victory this time around in a Big Ten-SEC game.

Ohio St. at Virginia Tech at 8:00 on ESPN on Monday, September 7th: 

Ohio St. was the best team in college football last season, and I'm not sure if you have heard about this, but they won the National Championship with their 3rd string quarterback. To me, that statement rings a little hollow at this point because when you have three of the top seven or eight quarterbacks in college football, a third-stringer is almost in a reversible position with your starter. As John Calipari might say, "Ohio St. did not have subs. They had reinforcements."

The Buckeyes only loss last season came not at Michigan St., not against Wisconsin in the Big Ten Title game in Cardinal Jones's first start, and not in the inaugural College Football Playoff, but at home to Virginia Tech. Yes, a Virginia Tech team that finished the season 7-6 with a home loss to East Carolina and who tied for last in their ACC division at 3-5 with a three game conference losing streak to Pitt, Miami, and Boston College. Obviously, context matters in sports, and J. T. Barrett was really bad against the Hokies in the second start of his career with two second half interceptions, including a complete miscommunication with his wide out when he was picked off by Donovan Riley to seal Virginia Tech's victory. The Hokies return a lot on defense in 2015, most noticeably first-team all ACC cornerback Kendall Fuller, but whoever does start for Ohio St. is going to be in complete control of the offense this time around.

So, J. T. Barrett, Cardale Jones, or Braxton Miller? That is the question on everybody's mind in the college football world right now, and here is where I stand on the QB battle.

Braxton Miller is a distant third option for the Buckeyes, and I do not think he is in the competition to start on opening night in Blacksburg. That is very odd to say about a quarterback that lead his team to an undefeated 12-0 season when they were ineligible for postseason play in 2012, passed for over 2,000 yards and rushed for over 1,000 yards in consecutive seasons (amongst power 5 conference quarterbacks, only Vince Young, Brad Smith, Cam Newton, Collin Klein and Johnny Manziel have done that a season since 2004), and is a two-time Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year (amongst the power 5 conferences, only USC running back Charles White, Stanford QB John Elway, Washington St. running back Rueben Mayes, USC quarterback Matt Leinart, USC running back Reggie Bush, Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck, Texas running back Ricky Williams, Oklahoma quarterback Jason White, and Arkansas running back Darren McFadden have done that).

Miller has had two surgeries on his right throwing shoulder since last February, and he has barely thrown a football since he re-injured his shoulder in August of 2014. He even missed out on the Buckeye's recent spring practices because he had still not fully recovered from the operations. Although some successful NFL quarterbacks have come back from labrum repairs like Drew Bress and Blaine Gabbert (ok, so just Bress), it is a difficult for a quarterback to come back from two such surgeries. Even when healthy, Barrett and Jones offer more to Ohio State's offense, which means that Miller is likely going to be one of the two odd men out in Columbus.

As for J.T. Barrett and Cardale Jones, either one of them could end up being under center when the Buckeyes take on the Hokies in week one, but I lean towards Jones. As he showed in the College Football Playoff against Alabama and Oregon, Cardale's arm is massive and he can vertically stretch a defense so much because of his ability to get the ball down the field to receivers like Michael Thomas and Corey Smith. Barrett is quicker than Jones, and a better dual-threat option to run the option and make the right read with Ezekiel Elliott. He has also been getting rave reviews out of the Elite 11 camp, where he seems to have fully recovered from the broken ankle he suffered against Michigan.

However, Cardale is so big that he can make up for those lost rushing yards when he scrambles and runs over guys as he gets a full head of speed with his 250 pound frame. Like when he destroyed Oregon defensive lineman Alex Balducci, or when he did trucked Alabama defensive back Landon Collins. Plus, Cradle Jones always keeps things very interesting on twitter. I'm keeping this question open and reserving my complete and final judgement on the OSU QB battle until I see how things shake out.

What I do know is that no matter who Urban Meyer decides to start on September 7th, Ezekiel Elliott is going to be running out there, Joey Bosa is going to be a menace against Va Tech's offensive line, Joshua Perry is going to be chasing guys down, and the Buckeyes should take it to the Hokies.

Week 2

Oklahoma at Tennessee at 6:00 on ESPN on Saturday, September 12th:

Is this finally the year Tennessee jumps back into the national picture?

It has been such a long time for Volunteer fans since the glory days of Phillip Fulmer in the 1990s and early 2000s, but I think that Tennessee is on the cusp of returning to national relevancy. Tennessee had 8 double-digit winning seasons from 1993 to 2004 and won the first BCS National Championship in 1998 despite losing Peyton Manning to the NFL draft. In the last 7 years, the Vols have had 4 different head coaches and an overall record of 40-47 without a season of more than 7 wins, by far their worst stretch as a football program since all the way back from 1958 to 1964.

Butch Jones has had two years to instill a new culture of responsibility in the program, and he brought in the #5 recruiting class in both 2014 and 2015, including more five star recruits then any school but Alabama and Florida State according to Rivals. The third year is typically the big season for a coach at a new school (just ask former Tennessee coach Derek Dooley about the need to produce some results in that year).

The Vols have as much talent on their roster as they have had in nearly a decade. Tennessee are bringing back 2014 second team All-SEC defensive end Derek Barnett, second team All-SEC outside linebacker Curt Maggitt, and one of the best defensive back pairings in the SEC along with Alabama's duo of Eddie Jackson and Cyrus Jones with their own tandem of Cameron Sutton and LaDarrell McNeil. Tennessee football may not be what it once was, but a win over Oklahoma would bring them closer to returning to some of those great "Rocky Top" glory days.

Frankly, you could also ask: is this the year that Oklahoma finally lives up to expectations and makes a run at the National Championship?

The Sooners were the biggest disappointment in college football last season (South Carolina was a close second). They finished 8-5 with a 40-6 bowl game loss to Clemson despite returning quarterback Trevor Knight, recruiting star running back Samaje Perine, and bringing back 9 players on defense from a team that went 11-2 with a win over Alabama in the Sugar Bowl the previous year.

"Big Game Bob Stoops" has disappeared over the last several years in Norman, as the Sooners have failed to get over the hump and get into the title conversation for more than 5 years. Losses like their 2010 defeat to unranked Texas A&M when they began the season 7-1, and their failure to beat unranked Texas Tech at home in 2011 despite having won 39 straight games in Norman up to that point and being the #1 team in the country with wins over #5 Florida St. in Tallahassee and #11 Texas in the Red River Rivalry, have epitomized Oklahoma's underachievement in recent years. For a school that has won 10 or more games in 4 of the last 6 seasons, the Sooners have left much to be desired because of their massive letdowns against lesser opponents and disappointments in big games (like the 2013 defeat to #5 Baylor in Waco 41-12).

Of all the non-conference college football games this season, the contest between Oklahoma and Tennessee from Neyland Stadium may have the largest implications on how the winner and loser perform for the rest of the season.

If Oklahoma can get by the Volunteers on the road in Knoxville, things part like the red sea for them. Following that game and a relatively easy non-conference game against Tulsa, the Sooners play West Virginia at home, Texas in the Red River Rivalry in Dallas, at Kansas St., home to Texas Tech, at Kansas, and then home against Iowa State. While I generally dislike pre-season conference predictions, they do provide a general outline of the talent level of certain teams, and Oklahoma plays its first 6 conference games against the team's projected to finish 5-10 in the Big 12 standings. The Sooners are not a top 5 level college football team, especially after losing two all Big 12 first-team offensive lineman with Daryl Williams and Tyrus Thompson graduating. It is conceivable, though, that with a win over Tennessee, the Sooners could go into their final stretch against the superior Big 12 teams - at Baylor, home to TCU, and at Oklahoma St. in Bedlam - undefeated because of how their schedule sets up.

Tennessee has the opposite scenario as Oklahoma. After playing the Sooners and then having an easy game against FCS school Western Carolina, the Volunteers go to Florida in the Swamp, play at home against an improved Arkansas team, host SEC East favorite Georgia, and then play Alabama in Tuscaloosa. The Vols have a much softer end to the season with games against Kentucky, North Texas, and Vanderbilt. A loss to Oklahoma would steal the early season thunder from Tennessee, especially before such a brutal stretch of conference game. For a team that expects to be a contender in the SEC East, Tennessee has to avoid beginning the season 3-4 because that would certainly deflate their sails.

The question looming over this game is who Oklahoma starts at quarterback between incumbent starter Trevor Knight and Texas Tech transfer Baker Mayfield. Knight was the darling of college football heading into last season, but he threw at least one interception in 8 of his 10 starts. Knight's poor decision-making, and his failure to look off defenders from the pocket, were evident in the Sooners crushing loss to eventual co-Big 12 champion TCU.  Knight threw a pick 6 when it was 31-31 in the 4th quarter and then tossed another interception with nearly 6 minutes left in TCU territory when the Sooners were down 37-33 (jump to 2:31).

Mayfield, the first ever true freshman walk-on to start a season for a power five conference team, sat out all of last season, but he can sling the ball around the field. He is well-suited for Oklahoma's new air raid offense and its emphasis on quick pace, no huddle play calling and variety of screen passes and trips wide receiver sets.

With everything pointing towards Mayfield possibly winning the job, why did Stoops select Knight to talk at Big 12 media day? And since the Sooners start off in week 1 against a heavily under-matched Akron team, I would not be surprised if Stoops plays both Knight and Mayfield to give the Vols defense some things to think about heading into their week 2 clash. Tennessee may not be what it once was, and Oklahoma may have been a disappointment over the last few years, but this is the most underrated game of the early college football season.

Oregon at Michigan St. at 8:00 on ABC on Saturday, September 12th:

There are a ton of compelling early season non-conference college football games this year, especially since the commissioners of all the power 5 conferences have insisted on their teams scheduling marquee games before conference play begins (the SEC has made it mandatory to play once game against another power 5 school in non-conference play). The increased emphasis on difficult non-conference games has been heightened in the College Football Playoff era, as one of the major knocks against Baylor last year was their cupcake of a non-conference slate against SMU, FCS school Northwestern St., and Buffalo.

Historic college football programs like Texas and Notre Dame are squaring off in week 1 for the first time since 1996, and traditional powers Nebraska and Miami(FL) are playing again this year in week 3. A trio of SEC teams are playing high-profile week 1 neutral site games with Alabama tangling with Wisconsin, Auburn taking on Louisville, and Texas A&M battling with Arizona State. In one of the hardest non-conference schedules, Michigan is playing two teams from the Pac-12 (at Utah in week 1 and home against Oregon St. in week 2) and the Wolverines also play a BYU team that was 4-0 in 2014 with wins at UConn and Texas before star quarterback Taysom Hill missed the rest of the season after suffering a leg injury against Utah State. Michigan's schedule pales in comparison to the Virginia Cavaliers, who are traveling to UCLA in week 1, then play Notre Dame at home in week 2, and also take on Boise St. in week 4.

There may be some match-ups that are higher scoring or between programs with a more storied past, but of all the games in the early season, the Oregon-Michigan St. game in East Lansing in week 2 will have the largest championship implications.

Things are going to be significantly different this time around between the Ducks and the Spartans due to the departure of Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Marcus Mariota, who lit the Michgian St. defense up last season in their top 10 battle in Eugene for 318 yards and 3 touchdowns in a come from behind 46-27 victory (people forget that Michigan St. led that game 27-18 with under 5 minutes left in the third quarter). You can still be sure that the Oregon and Michigan St. coaching staffs are going to be reviewing a lot of game tape from their encounter last season to understand the opposing team's offensive and defensive tendencies.

The Spartans are going to have figure out a way to slow down Oregon's offensive tempo. Their defensive front seven last season, with the likes of Shilique Calhoun and Taiwan Jones, was unable to stay up to pace with the Duck's offense or make substitutes quickly enough to bring on fresh bodies. The Spartans defensive coordinator last season, Pat Narduzzi, left to take the vacant head coaching job at Pittsburgh, so the newly minted leaders of Michigan State's defensive unit, Harlon Barnett and Mike Tressel, are going to have to figure out a way to contain the Duck's offense.

The Spartans will need to be better conditioned on defense than they were last season because as the game got late into the third quarter and into the final period, Oregon's offensive line began to overpower a tired and beat up Michigan St. defense. Oregon's lead running back Royce Freeman had just 21 yards in the first three quarters of the game. He exploded for 68 yards and 2 touchdowns in the fourth quarter after huge gaps began to come available as Michigan State's tired front was unable to get off blocks and plug the holes. On Freeman's 38 yard touchdown scamper when the Ducks were only up 32-27, Michigan State's linebacking core over-pursued the football, leaving a counterattack lane for the Oregon freshman back to run through behind his offensive line. The Spartans will have to maintain better gap discipline this time around against the Ducks.

Michigan State has enough athletes and experience coming back on defense to do a better job against Oregon's offense this time around. Shilique Calhoun, a two-time Big Ten all first-team defensive end, is back for his senior season at Michigan St. despite being a first round draft talent. Calhoun had 12.5 tackles for loss in 2014, and Joey Bosa is the only returning player in the Big Ten that had more sacks then him last season. One of the reasons that the dominant defensive end decided to return to Michigan St. was that defensive tackles Malik McDowell and Lawrence Thomas, two interior linemen with solid hands and that can get leverage off the line, are coming back to school. They allow Calhoun to exploit one-on-one matchup that come his way and they also clog up the interior, so that he can get a jump off the edge to rush the passer in their cover 4 defense.

Michigan St. likes to play a fair share of press coverage with their corners, and I do not think that will change this season if they stay with their 4-3 over defensive scheme. Their defense will put a lot of pressure on defensive backs Arjen Colquhoun, Jermaine Edmondson, Darian Hicks, and Demetrious Cox to stay with Oregon's loaded group of wide receivers, which includes Devon Allen, Keanon Lowe, Dwayne Stanford, Charles Nelson, and Darren Carrington. Michigan State has had plenty of good cornerbacks in the past that could play that kind of tight coverage on skilled wideouts with the likes of Chris Rucker, Johnny Adams, Mitchell White, Darqueze Dennard, and Trae Waynes. However, with a more inexperienced group of corners this season, Michigan State's safety group, featuring RJ Williamson, will have to be all over the field in their usual 2 or 3 deep zone coverages. The Spartans defense will have a very large crowd on their side this time around in East Lansing, making it more difficult for the Ducks to communicate their play calls at the pace they would ideally like.

In terms of Oregon's offense, most of their question marks without Mariota will not be answered until they come up against Sparty in week 2. Who is going to be behind center for the Ducks?

I feel like there are more QB competitions this year in college football then any year in the past, and Oregon coach Mark Helfrich will have to decide between last year's backup Jeff Lockie, who attempted just 28 passes all season long, and Vernon Adams, who played three seasons at the FCS level with Eastern Washington before transferring to Eugene and being eligible to play immediately.

I personally see Adams taking the starting job over Lockie. Adams, who was the runner-up to John Robertson of Villanova last season for the Walter Payton Award for the best FCS player, is not as quick as Mariota but he can definitely run the zone read when Oregon needs him to. While at Eastern Washington he ran an up tempo offense that used a lot of the same language as the one he is heading to in Eugene. Although he may not be the most prolific math student in the world and is an unknown to fans despite knocking off Oregon St. 49-46 in 2013 (he threw for 411 yards and 4 touchdowns and ran for 107 yards and 2 touchdowns in that wild game in Corvallis), Adams could be the most impactful transfer in college football in 2015.

Since so much of the game last season came down to Oregon's offense against Michigan State's defense, I have ignored Michigan State's offense against Oregon's defense. However, one of the ways that the Spartans can slow down the Ducks attack is by going up and down the field with their offense and pounding the football on the ground behind an offensive line with three returning starters. Despite losing Jeremy Langford to the NFL, Michigan State's running backs should be able to follow the lanes opened up to them by 2014 first team Big-Ten center Jack Allen and second team Big-Ten offensive tackle Jack Conklin. The Spartans will need a little better game this time around from Connor Cook to help them exact revenge on Oregon, which I think they will be able to do in East Lansing.

Boise St. at BYU at 10:15 on ESPN2 on Saturday, September 12th:

Every year in college football, there is always at least one player that is must-see television because of his explosiveness and ability to reel off big plays at any moment. There is invariably one player that a team desperately rallies on to be their do-it-all play maker, and to make everybody around them seem so much better. They may have some slight back pain after a game from carrying their teammates to such a great extent (just ask James Harden how it feels to do that for an entire regular season due to so many Rockets injuries).

In 2007, running back Kevin Smith did almost everything for the UCF offense, rushing for 2,567 yards and 29 touchdowns, including having 9 games with more than 170 yards on the ground. In 2011, Kevin Sumlin put the ball in Case Keenum's hands and let him sling it around anywhere he wanted, as Kennum threw for an astonishing 5,631 yards and 48 touchdowns. In 2012, Jordan Lynch was that guy for Northern Illinois, throwing for 3,138 yards and 25 touchdowns and rushing for 1,815 yards and 19 touchdowns to push the Huskies all the way into the Orange Bowl against Florida State.

The do-it-all guy to watch this season in college football is BYU quarterback Taysom Hill, who is a definite dark horse Heisman Trophy candidate. Hill is part of a long line of exciting BYU quarterbacks including Gary Sheide, Gifford Neilsen, Marc Wilson, 1985 Bears Super Bowl winning QB Jim McMahon, 1983 Heisman Trophy runner-up and 1992 and 1994 NFL MVP Steve Young, 1984 National Championship winning QB Robbie Bosco, former Sammy Baugh Award winner and current USC coach Steve Sarkisian, and 1990 Heisman winner Ty Detmer.

A quick tangent here: Penn St. claims to be linebacker U with past stars at the position like Jack Ham, Shane Conlan, Lavar Arrington, and Paul Posluszny. LSU sees itself as defensive back U due to the school having had players like Jerry Stovall, Tommy Casanova, Patrick Peterson, and Tyrann Mathieu. USC is known by many as tailback U since Reggie Bush, OJ Simpson, Charles White, and Marcus Allen all attended the school. BYU may be quarterback U for all of college football. The Cougars possible competition could only come from Purdue (Len Dawson, Bob Griese, Gary Danielson, Jim Everett, and Drew Bress), Stanford (John Brodie, Jim Plunkett, John Elway, and Andrew Luck), USC (Pat Haden, Paul McDonald, Carson Palmer, Matt Leinart), and Miami (Jim Kelly, Bernie Kosar, Vinny Testaverde, Ken Dorsey, and Gino Torretta) for that spot, but I think they may have it solidified at this point.

Back to Taysom Hill. Hill, once a Stanford recruit when Jim Harbaugh was still there, is fast, strong, quick, mobile, tall, shifty, smart, and the best player in the country that nobody knows about. Hill has always had a very rare athletic ability for a quarterback, as he showed against Texas in 2013 when he ran for an absurd 259 yards and 3 touchdowns, the second most yards in a game in school history behind only Eldon Fortie's 272 yard performance in 1962 against George Washington and the most yards that UT has ever given up in a game (their tackling was laughable against Hill). In 2014, Hill fractured his leg in a game against Utah State and he had to miss the rest of the season, including a 55-30 loss to Boise St..

It is very hard to get a read on how things are going to play out in Provo between BYU and Boise. Hill has been as integral to BYU as any single player to their team in college football over the last couple years, so Boise's smashing of BYU will play out differently this season with Hill in the game.

Boise are one of only 15 FBS teams to be returning all five offensive lineman from 2014, including first team all-Mountain West center Marcus Henry and second team all-Mountain West left tackle Rees Odhiambo. The Broncos have lost a lot of talent at the skill positions. Quarterback Grant Hedrick, who threw for a career high 410 yards and four touchdowns against the Cougars, is gone and so is third team All-American running back Jay Ajayi, who ran for 118 yards and 2 touchdowns against BYU last year and was a beast for the Broncos in the backfield.

There is no reason to underestimate the Broncos. Since 1999, Boise has an unbelievable record of 177-31 in 16 seasons and in three different conferences. That amazing mark includes their unforgettable trick-play victory in 2006 against Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl, a 17-10 win over TCU in the Fiesta Bowl to finish 14-0 in 2009, and a 12-2 season in 2014 that was capped off by a 38-30 Fiesta Bowl win over Pac-12 foe Arizona. Is it possible for a team to be underrated that has finished with undefeated or with 1 loss in 8 of the last 13 seasons and has had regular seasons wins over #12 Oregon in Eugene in 2008, #14 Oregon on the blue turf in Boise in 2009, #6 Virginia Tech at FedEx Field in 2010, and #22 Georgia in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game in 2011 from the Georgia Dome?

I can guarantee that the Cougars defense will not allow 55 points again to Boise, including 31 points in one quarter. I think Tysom Hill will be able to carry his team to a victory against the always talented and well coached Boise State Broncos in week 2.

Week 3

Georgia Tech at Notre Dame at 3:30 on NBC on Saturday, September 19th:

There are a lot of different things that are cool or sexy in this world. Most people can agree that Hollywood sexualizes Margot Robbie in her films, as she is a modern-day sex symbol equivalent to Raquel Welch from the 1960s. Chris Pratt is cool, as anybody that has seen Guardians of the Galaxy and Jurassic World can certainly attest to. How about some athletes? Allen Iverson had as much flare as any professional athlete, as he crossed over defender after defender on his personal mixtape. Bryce Harper is the "ultimate bro," a guy whose hair is so cool that the Washington crowd goes wild when he takes his helmet off and flicks his hair around after home runs. A lot of college football offenses are cool to watch, like when Washington St. spreads you out and throws the ball 70 times a game under head coach Mike Leach.

The old, traditional triple option running attack with a quarterback under center is definitely not the sexiest thing watch. I enjoy fullback dives and offensive linemen chip blocking defensive tackles and ends as much as the next guy, but I'm not watching a wishbone offense for its flare and excitement.

Paul Johnson, who coached at Navy from 2002 to 2007 and then brought the triple option flexbone attack to Georgia Tech in 2008, said, "Yeah, it's not sexy as some of the other stuff, but if you look now at the offenses, there's hardly a team that doesn't run some form of option." Johnson is absolutely correct. The triple option, especially out of the flexbone formation, is not a pro style offense, but so many teams run different variations of the triple option nowadays that it is not an anachronistic offense.

Although Auburn's offense under Gus Malzahn looks a little different than Georgia Tech's attack, it is a variation of the triple option offense with the quarterback just taking the snap from the shotgun instead of under center. When the Tigers run an inside zone with two half-backs in the backfield or run their inside zone with a jet sweep handoff or jet sweep fake, they are running a variety of the triple option. While the service academies, and now Georgia Tech, are known for the flexbone offense, triple option attacks have spread across college football.

Georgia Tech's offense may not be the prettiest thing in the world to watch, but it is not nearly as unconventional of an offense to run as it may seem. With all of its misdirection plays and cut blocks at the line, it is going to be a tall task for Notre Dame to stop the flexbone offense in week 3 in South Bend.

It is so important in a flexbone triple option offense to have a quarterback that understands how to read the opposing defense and make the right pitch. The QB must be able to identify the defense before the snap, read the defensive end's position on the field, and be willing to take a big hit once in a while before giving it off to the half back on an option run.

From 2008 to 2010, the Yellow Jackets had Josh Nesbitt at the quarterback position, who understood how to run the triple option behind center. Nesbitt led Georgia Tech to a 22-11 record over a three-year span in games in which he started, including an Orange Bowl appearance in 2009 after an ACC Championship, the team's first such game since the 1967 Orange Bowl against Florida. Without a foundational piece at the quarterback position from 2011 to 2013, (the Yellow Jackets switched off between Tevin Washington and Vad Lee under center), the Yellow Jackets could only muster a record of 22-18.

However, Paul Johnson has once again found a very a reliable quarterback option with one time Alabama commit Justin Thomas, who not only leads Tech's running attack to perfection, but also gives the Yellow Jackets more of a legitimate passing threat than any of the team's preceding quarterbacks. His 1,719 passing yards and 18 touchdowns through the air in 2014 were by far the most ever under a Paul Johnson quarterback in FBS play (in 2006 at Navy, his leading QB in passing yards, Kaipo-Noa Kaheaku-Enhada, threw for 384 yards and 5 touchdowns the entire season, and the team still finished 9-4). Thomas is at his best when he can get past the first line of defense and use his speed to escape any possible defenders, as he did with his 65 yard against Clemson when he made their entire secondary miss him.

The question that looms over this game is how Notre Dame is going to try and stop Thomas and Georgia Tech's offensive flexbone attack. In 2014, the Fighting Irish allowed 336 rushing yards and 5.6 yards per carry against Navy, who scored 39 points on ND. Notre Dame could not solve the Midshipmen's triple option all game long, allowing them to score touchdowns on 5 of 12 possessions. That spells a lot of trouble for Notre Dame heading into this year's clash against Georgia Tech.

However, the Fighting Irish had a very young defense last season, and are going to take great strides from some of their poor defensive displays. Outside linebacker Jaylon Smith, who was a 2014 second team AP All-American, free safety Max Redfield, and defensive tackle Sheldon Day are all returning for the Irish and are going to rectify a defense that was in all sorts of disarray last season. The Irish have way too much talent defensively to give up the kind of yards that they did last year, and Smith is going to be flying through the gaps to shut down Tech's rushing attack. It is especially important, though, that Smith and the other linebackers do not get sealed by Tech's pulling blockers and caught too deep down the field because that would force their defensive backs to make tackles in the secondary. I would like to see Notre Dame defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder mix up his defenses against the Yellow Jackets, even at times dropping his defensive backs in quarterback contains and QB spies to prevent Thomas from taking off or continually pitching the ball to his halfback.

Although the triple option is not sexiest thing in the world and will never be the football schematic version of David Beckham, the most important aspect of the Georgia Tech-Notre Dame game in South Bend will be how ND defends the Yellow Jackets flexbone attack.

Nebraska at Miami (FL) at 3:30 on ABC Saturday, September 19th:

If the Nebraska Cornhuskers and Miami Hurricanes played a game in the late 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, or early 2000s, it would be by far the biggest thing in college football that year. In a 30-year period from 1974 to 2004, Nebraska finished in the top 10 of the AP poll 20 times while Miami was not far behind with 15 finishes amongst the top 10.

The Cornhuskers won the National Championship with a 24-17 victory over the Hurricanes in the Orange Bowl in 1994 and then repeated as champions in 1995 with a 62-24 demolition of Florida in the Fiesta Bowl. Tommie Frazier finished second in the Heisman Trophy voting that year to Eddie George and Nebraska had one of the best teams of all-time with a 464 point differential over the entire season. The Cornhuskers also shared a title with Michigan in 1997 after smashing Tennessee 42-17 in the Orange Bowl.

Miami won their first National Championship by beating the Cornhuskers in 1983 after Tom Osborne went for 2 with under a minute left in the Canes 31-30 Orange Bowl victory. Miami won it all under Jimmy Johnson in 1987 after beating Oklahoma 20-14 in the Orange Bowl and then were National Champions again two years later in 1989 under Dennis Erickson with a 33-25 win over Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. The Hurricanes shared the title in 1991 with Washington after beating Nebraska in the Orange Bowl 22-0, and then won it all in 2001 with a 37-14 win over Nebraska in the Rose Bowl, a team that would eventually have 38 players selected in the NFL Draft, including Ed Reed, Andre Johnson, Frank Gore, Vince Wilfork, Jeremy Shockey, Jonathan Vilma, Willis McGahee, Clinton Portis, Antrel Rolle, Sean Taylor, and Kellen Winslow II.

Nebraska and Miami played four times from 1983 to 2001 with the winner of their match-up going on to win the National Championship.

However, this is no longer the 1980s or 1990s. "Another One Bites The Dust," "Livin' On A Prayer," and "Can't Touch This" are not the top songs in the world, Back to the Future, Scarface, Pulp Fiction, and Fight Club are not the most watched movies, Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush are no longer the President, and Nebraska and Miami are no longer the class of college football.

A lot has changed since the schools met in the Rose Bowl back in 2002. The Cornhuskers fired Bo Pelini after seven consecutive seasons of finishing 9-4 or 10-4, believing that they should be competing for the National Championship (we will miss Bo in Lincoln, but even more importantly, we will miss the fake Bo Pelini account now that he has left mainstream college football to coach at Youngstown St., which I give full kudos to him for doing). With Ohio St., Michigan St., Penn St., and Michigan all in the Big Ten East, Nebraska has a very solid chance to win the Big Ten West in their first year under new head coach Mike Riley, especially since they play Wisconsin in Lincoln.

Miami is still climbing a long road back from the Nevin Shapiro scandal, having mustered only one season with more than seven wins in four years under former Temple head coach Al Golden.  If any team can prevent Georgia Tech from winning their second consecutive ACC Coastal divisional title, it may be Miami (Virginia Tech could surprise the Yellow Jackets as well). Nebraska and Miami will need to take small steps in order to take giant leaps to get back into the national fold.

I really liked what I saw last season from true freshman quarterback and ACC Rookie of the Year Brad Kaaya, whose mom was coincidentally the "Bye, Felicia" girl from the 1995 film Friday with Ice Cube and Chris Tucker. Aside from that amazing anecdote that Kaaya can always tell, he can also mention that he was one of the best freshman quarterbacks in all college football last season along with Ohio State's J. T. Barrett and Arizona's Anu Solomon (Clemson's Deshaun Watson is going to be the real star of this group if he can stay healthy).

Kaaya may struggle without the blocking up front of center Shane McDermott and Giants first round pick Ereck Flowers. At times last year, Kaaya held onto the ball for too long in the pocket, which could hurt him if his protection is not able to navigate around the Cornhuskers interior pressure from defensive tackles Vincent Valentine and Maliek Collins.

If Nebraska is unable to get to Kaaya, especially since defensive end Randy Gregory is now in the NFL with the Cowboys, it could be a long day for a Cornhuskers defense that allowed 59 points to Wisconsin and 45 points to USC last season. Mark Banker, Nebraska's new defensive coordinator, likes to line-up in a 4-3 scheme. However, the Cornhuskers may not have the secondary to play the man-free coverage that he likes from his defensive backs, which could be an issue when they come up against Kaaya and the Hurricanes on September 19th.

The Most Heated Rivalry In Sports Right Now - The Boston Red Sox And The Tampa Bay Rays

Every kid growing up learns about the intense rivalries that have marked collegiate and professional sports for decades, those that always have tempers flaring, bodies flying, and unparalleled fervor and emotion. In college basketball, for example, the Duke and North Carolina rivalry, whose campuses are separated by just nine miles along Tobacco Road, is the most ferocious game in all of college sports. The Blue Devils or Tar Heels have won or shared the ACC regular season title 46 out of 61 years since 1954 and one of the teams has been crowned ACC tournament champion 36 out of 61 seasons including every year from 1997 to 2011 except for when Maryland won it in 2004 in overtime over Duke, meaning that every one of their games has conference and, typically, National Championship ramifications (in a 20 year stretch from 1991 to 2010, Duke and North Carolina won a combined 7 National Championships with everybody from George Lynch in 1993 with the Tar Heels to Jon Scheyer in 2010 with the Dukies).

Who can forget the game between the clubs in 1992 at Chapel Hill, where North Carolina beat eventual repeat National Champions Duke (the first team to go back-to-back since UCLA won seven in a row from 1967 to 1973), a Blue Devils team that had Bobby Hurley, Christian Laettner, and Grant Hill, to give the Dukies one of their only two losses during the season. The game also gave the world of sports the image of North Carolina center Eric Montross taking free throws with his face covered in blood, epitomizing the fierceness of the Duke-North Carolina rivalry. My personal favorite Duke-Carolina moment was back in 2007 when Tyler Hansbrough broke his nose on a hard foul from Gerald Henderson with 14.5 seconds left in the game and then got up looking for more with his face full of blood in a season where North Carolina would go on to make the Elite Eight before losing to Georgetown in overtime (Henderson has averaged nearly 15 points per game the last three years with the Bobcats, which shows that it isn't all bad in Charlotte because average NBA players can get enough playing time and shots to not actually look that bad in the Queen City. I'm telling you that there are some guys in the NBA that love playing on poor teams and taking a ton of shots and scoring a lot each game like a Kevin Martin or a O.J. Mayo).

In sports, we have had historic rivalries that date back to a time when people still thought Donald Sterling was sane, which is a very, very long time ago, like the great Minnesota-Wisconsin rivalry for Paul Bunyan's Axe that began in 1890 or the Michigan-Michigan St. game for Paul Bunyan's Trophy (yes, there is a difference) that started all the way back in 1897. We have also had rivalries that really only lasted a few years because of a few certain players like the Pats-Colts games from 2001 to 2010 that pitted Peyton Manning against Tom Brady twelve separate times including three times in the postseason or the Bulls-Pistons rivalry during the late 1980's and early 1990's with Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Horace Grant, and Bill Cartwright of Chicago going up against Isiah Thomas, Joe Dumars, Bill Laimbeer, and Dennis Rodman from Detroit including four straight years in the postseason from 1988 to 1991.

Aside from Duke and North Carolina, Louisville-Kentucky is clearly college basketball's most storied rivalry with the teams playing in two of the last four NCAA tournaments with the Wildcats winning both meetings in route to their National Championship in 2012 and their runner-up finish this season. College football is also characterized by its rivalry games that are played particularly in the last week of the season, notably Notre Dame and USC, Michigan and Ohio St. in The Game, Alabama and Auburn in the Iron Bowl, and Oklahoma and Texas in the Red River Rivalry. The MLB has the Yankees and the Red Sox, the Dodgers and the Giants, and the Cardinals and the Cubs while the NHL has the Canadiens-Maple Leafs, Flames-Oilers, and Flyers-Penguins. The NFL is known for its rivalries that include the Bears-Packers, Redskins-Cowboys, and Chiefs-Raiders, as is the NBA for its contests that involve the Lakers and Celtics, Knicks and Nets, and Mavericks and Spurs. Soccer is a game that thrives off its rivalry matches more so than any other sport because of the hatred that is present at local derbies between teams that are so close in proximity like Liverpool and Everton on Merseyside, the Ruhr Derby between Borussia Dortmund and Schalke, the Old Firm between Rangers and Celtic, the Rome derby between Roma and Lazio, the Milan Derby between AC Milan and Inter Milan, and the Derby of the Eternal Enemies between Olympiakos and Panathinaikos. If you throw in Federer vs Nadal, Agassi vs Sampras, McEnroe vs Borg, Ali vs Frazier, Snead vs Hogan, Arnold vs Jack, Phil vs Tiger, and even Affirmed vs Alydar, you have your biggest rivalries in all of sports right in front of you.

As great as it feels to support your own team and fall in love with your players and coaches - unless you are a Raiders fan where your best quarterbacks since Rich Gannon led the team to a Super Bowl appearance in 2002 include Rick Mirer, Andrew Walter, Aaron Brooks, JaMarcus Russell, Jason Campbell, Carson Palmer, and Matt McGloin - it is sometimes just as nice to root against a team that you cannot stand (essentially, a club full of players where you hate every guy as much as LeBron despises Lance Stephenson, or as much as Lance's teammates often loathe Lance Stephenson). There are fans who even find more satisfaction in seeing teams that they hate lose than watching their own team succeed because as sad as it sounds, seeing guys fail is sometimes even more invigorating and exciting than watching athletes live up to their greatness. As incredible as it was to watch Auburn, a team that went 3-9 in 2012 just two years after winning the title with Cam Newton in 2010, come back under first year head coach Gus Malzahn and get to the SEC Championship Game and eventually the BCS National Title against Florida St., what made them getting there that much more special was that they beat Alabama in the Iron Bowl along the way, a club that had bullied all of college football ever since Nick Saban took over in 2007 and had been a ridiculous 72-7 since 2008 with three National Championships in four years at the time of the contest. Auburn's second trip to the title game in four years had more meaning because they knocked off their undefeated, powerhouse rival to get there.

LeBron James became the rival of every team and fan-base in the NBA upon his arrival in Miami, as people were more inclined to root against James than any athlete ever before him after he left Cleveland following the worst 75 minutes of television that does not include two episodes of The Hills with The Decision in 2010. More fans passionately cheered on the Mavericks in the 2011 NBA Finals than their own team throughout the season, which was an odd sight to see. It did, however, have some benefits because people were finally able to truly witness the genius of Rick Carlisle, even without a very talented roster, and one of the greatest seven power forwards of all-time go to work and get his first NBA title with Dirk Nowitzki (the other six being Duncan, Elvin Hayes, Malone, Bob Pettit, Kevin Garnett, and Charles Barkley). The year long LeBron hate tour at every arena across the NBA, especially in Cleveland, reminded me that people love to root against athletes more so than they even like to support them (LeBron is not the only one either because people love to rip on Dwight Howard, Tony Romo, Grant Balfour, Johnny Manziel, and Carmelo Anthony to name a few others).

As a Red Sox fan, I normally have two rooting interests during the seven month long major league season, which are the Sox and the team that is playing the dreaded New York Yankees (I took that from a t-shirt, but it is still very applicable to this discussion on rivalries). I still remember like it was yesterday the MLB playoffs in 2003 because of just how happy I was that the Marlins with Derrek Lee, Mike Lowell, and Josh Beckett beat the Yankees in the World Series, the Evil Empire's second loss in the Fall Classic in the three years with the other one being to Randy Johnson, Curt Schilling, Luis Gonzalez, and the Diamondbacks in 2001. After the Yankees fell in the World Series to Florida, the sting of Grady Little bringing in Tim Wakefield, knowing that one mistake with a knuckleball pitcher on the mound would cost the Sox the game and the series in the ALCS, which it did because of Aaron "Bleeping" Boone, did not feel nearly as bad as it did the previous week. There was really no reason to be less upset about another season without a Sox World Series because another year had passed without the Sox making the World Series (the last time being in the infamous 1986 Fall Classic with the Mets) or capturing the Commissioner's Trophy, which it had not done since back in 1918 with Dutch Leonard, Carl Mays, and Babe Ruth. In fact, the 2003 team with a pitching staff that included Derek Lowe and Pedro Martinez and a lineup highlighted by Nomar Garciaparra, Manny Ramirez, and David Ortiz was the Sox best chance to capture a World Series since that 1918 season so long ago. Nonetheless, the fact that the Yankees, who were heavy World Series favorites over the Marlins, somehow fell in 6 games to Florida, did not make the season seem like a complete and utter nightmare for Red Sox Nation. Since New York did not win it all either, the Yankees loss in the World Series, for some reason, did serve as a unconventional consolation for the Sox.

Coaches are often defined by how they fare in their very important rivalry games, especially in college sports, because of all the resentment that is present between two heated rivals and how important it is to be better than that other team every single year (I'm sure Kansas St. basketball fans still talk about the 1989 season when they beat beat Kansas twice in one year despite having the worse end of the rivalry). Forgetting his numerous idiotic mistakes off the field (and there were a lot of them) Jim Tressel is revered in Columbus for going a dominant 9-1 against arch rival Michigan (technically speaking, it was 8-1 because the win in 2010 was later vacated) with 6 of those victories over Lloyd Carr, making him the second most successful coach in the rivalry behind only Woody Hayes (16 wins) and helping Ohio St. become the first team in the rivalry to win at least six consecutive games since Michigan did so under Fielding Yost, George Little, and Elton Wieman from 1922 to 1927. Despite leading Ohio St. to an incredible 106-22 record overall with eight double-digit win seasons, a National Championship in 2002, and two straight BCS National Championship Games in 2007 and 2008, Tressel is admired by the fans for his complete domination of the Buckeyes rival way more than anything else he did from 2001 to 2010 with the program.

Everybody in sports wants to be apart of a transcendent rivalry that is stepped with history, intense passion, and championship implications, and some fans even go as far as to construct their own rivalries as a means to manufacture the profound hatred that so many other teams share with one another. Maryland would always embrace their very heated games against Duke, especially since the 1980's, and the teams did have some unbelievable battles like when Duke was down by ten points with 54 seconds left in 2001 before Jay Williams sparked the miracle minute with eight points in fourteen seconds to miraculously send the game that was all but over into overtime, a period where Shane Battier would eventually put the finishing touches on one of the craziest college basketball comebacks of all-time at the old Cole Field House (look up Illinois-Arizona 2005 Elite Eight or USC-Oregon Pac-10 game from 1999 if you want to see some other ridiculous comebacks in college basketball). I am still stunned by that Duke comeback every time I see it although I know exactly what is going to happen and I still haven't watched one guy pull his team back from the dead like that since Tracy McGrady scored 13 points in 35 seconds for the Rockets in a 2004 victory over the Spurs by one point in Houston. Despite the passion and fire that Maryland fans would always bring to their games against the Dukies, the Cameron Crazies would never bring the same vigor or feeling to the contest and would always serenade the Maryland players with chants of "You're not our rival," in reference to the real Duke-North Carolina rivalry. The game meant much more to Maryland than to Duke because it was, in the eyes of the Terps, their biggest rival.

If we look around the world of sports today, the landscape of rivalries, especially in pro sports, has changed quite a bit. The hottest rivalry in the NFL right now is clearly the Seahawks and the 49ers in the NFC West, two teams that are a combined 47-16-1 the last two years with the 49ers being the first team to make three consecutive conference championship games since the Eagles did so from 2001 to 2004 and the Seahawks winning their first ever Super Bowl this year with a crazy 23-17 win over the 49ers to get there (I haven't seen two groups of people hate each other as much as the 49ers and Seahawks since the Jets and the Sharks in West Side Story). The best rivalry in the NHL today is arguably the Kings and the Sharks, which really has begun to kick off this decade. The California teams met in the first round of the 2011 Western Conference playoffs, where the Sharks won in six games, but the Kings have gotten their revenge, as they knocked off the Sharks in seven games in the 2013 Western Conference semifinals, a series that saw the road team win all seven games, and then again in the 2014 first round when the Kings became the 4th team in NHL history along with the Maple Leafs in 1942, the Islanders in 1975, and the Flyers in 2010 to win a series after trailing 3-0. In the NBA, the Heat-Pacers rivalry, despite it being very one sided in the favor of LeBron, D-Wade, and Chris Bosh, is likly the most intense NBA rivalry, as the clubs have met in the playoffs each of the last three seasons and are the first teams to have an Eastern Conference Finals rematch since the Heat and Pistons did so in 2004 and then again in 2005. Finally, in the MLB, and possibly all of sports, the most fierce and fiery rivalry you can find right now is actually between the Red Sox and the Rays and it is not even close.

Obviously, the Red Sox-Rays rivalry will never get close to anything that the Yankees and the Red Sox have had few more than 100 years. The Yankees have had iconic names that everybody knows like Ruth, Gehrig, Mantle, DiMaggio, Rivera, Berra, Jeter, Whitey Ford, and Reggie Jackson while legends of baseball like Williams, Yastrzemski, Ortiz, Pedro, Tris Speaker, Jim Rice, Foxx, Cy Young, and Fisk have strolled around Fenway Park. To counter those Hall of Famers, or future Hall of Famers, the Rays can give you Carl Crawford or Evan Longoria, who don't exactly belong in the same conversation with some of the greatest baseball players to have ever lived. The Yankees and Sox met in the playoffs three times in six years from 1999 to 2004 with the winner making the World Series each time while the Rays have only made it to the postseason four times total in their 16 years as a MLB franchise. The Red Sox and Yankees have had the sale of Babe Ruth in 1920, Lou Piniella running over Carlton Fisk in 1976, Bucky Dent's home run in the one-game playoff for the AL East in 1978, Don Zimmer vs Pedro in game 3 of the ALCS in 2003, Aaron Boone's walk-off homer in game 7 of that same series, A-Rod vs Jason Varitek in 2004, and, of course, the Sox improbable comeback from 3-0 down in the 2004 ALCS thanks to Dave Roberts, Bill Mueller, David Ortiz, Curt Schilling's bloody sock, and Johnny Damon's grand slam. No other two teams in sports can match the incredible Red Sox-Yankee moments over the past century, especially not a club like the Rays that did not have a winning season as an organization until 2008 and was 327 games under .500 in a 10-year stretch from 1998 to 2007 (645-972) without a season with more than 70 wins.

While the history of the Red Sox-Rays rivalry is not in the same stratosphere as the Red Sox and Yankees, it is the most tense, passionate, and testy game in the sport right now. The Sox and Rays are two teams that genuinely do not like each other in any aspect of life, which generally means that when they come together on the baseball diamond, things tend to get very uneasy. Often times in sports, rivalries are just way too contrived to make them appear full of tempestuous fervor, as in actuality, the players sometimes do not feel anywhere near the same emotion that the fans so desperately want to see in a true rivalry. Despite both being apart of the original six in the NHL, having won a combined 30 Stanley Cups since 1915, and having faced off against each other in an incredible 34 different postseasons including ten out of eleven years from 1984 to 1994, even Boston Bruins coach Claude Julien admitted during the Canadiens-Bruins series in the Eastern Conference semifinals this season, "We know that since the beginning of the playoffs lots of things have been exaggerated to build an off-ice rivalry. But we're taking care of our own affairs, and we respect other people's opinions." People tried to hype up the Knicks-Heat rivalry after Carmelo Anthony was traded to New York in February of 2011 like it was back in the late 1990's and early 2000's when Patrick Ewing, Allan Houston, Larry Johnson, and Latrell Sprewell went up against Alonzo Mourning, Tim Hardaway, and Jamal Mashburn for four consecutive postseasons. The fan bases, though, neglected the fact that LeBron and Carmelo are good friends off the court (LeBron's St. Vincent-St Mary's played Carmelo's Oak Hill in high school, they both came out of that amazing 2003 draft class, and they played together on the 2004, 2008, and 2012 US Olympic Teams) and that the teams have no legitimate ill well towards one another like many players had back in the day with one another. We often tend to glorify the past in sports, but Larry Bird was never friends with Bernard King when the Celtics and the Knicks played in the 1980's nor were Michael Jordan and Isiah Thomas hanging out during the Bulls and Pistons encounters in the 1980's and 1990's, but times have changed, and as LeBron James said, "There is no real rivalry in the NBA these days." However, in the case of the Red Sox and Rays, the two squads do have true hatred and hostility towards each other, which does create the most heated rivalry in all of sports at this present moment.

Any two divisional opponents in the MLB, even those as seemingly innocuous as the Royals and the Indians (see the incident involving Jonathan Sanchez, Shin-Soo Choo, Jeanmar Gomez, and Mike Moustakas in 2012), are destined to get into some scraps over time just because they play each other 19 different times each season (in comparison, the Red Sox play fellow AL ballclub the Seattle Mariners just 6 times this year, which is a little bit sad because Boston will now only get a chance to see Robinson Cano not run to first base in 2 series during the season rather than in 6 series if he had stayed with New York). Just like, for instance, the Giants and Padres in the NL West or the Mariners and Angels in the AL West, the Sox and the Rays have of course gotten into some scuffles and tense exchanges here and there because that is just the nature of baseball. However, while the Sox-Rays games began to really escalate over the past several years, especially since the always confident and daring Joe Maddon took over in Tampa Bay and turned the club around by bringing them to the World Series in 2008 in their first ever postseason appearance as a franchise, there has always been some real bad blood between the clubs for years.

Boston and Tampa Bay played a game fourteen years ago where eight Devil Rays would ultimately get ejected because of an obscene five altercations over the course of the first seven innings of the contest. In his amazing Cy Young winning year in 2000, Pedro Martinez had one of his only two poor starts of the entire season against the Devil Rays when he went just 4 innings versus Tampa on August 14 (that season was so good that Pedro's 1.74 ERA was the 5th lowest in the majors since 1969 and his 0.737 WHIP was the lowest ever in a season). When the teams met just 15 days later at the Trop, Pedro, most likely intentionally due to his frustration, plunked the Rays leadoff hitter Gerald Williams in the first inning on a high fastball, which led to a huge benches clearing brawl and Jason Varitek having to tackle an incensed Williams to keep him from Pedro. In retaliation, Rays pithcer Dave Eiland hit Brain Daubach along with Nomar Garciaparra and was tossed, and so was Cory Lidle after he threw behind Daubach. On May 5, 2002, there was a game between the clubs that saw Ryan Rupe hit Normar Garciaparra after Normar hit a home run off him and then Shea Hillenbrand in the back, which led to Trot Nixon "losing hold of his bat" and practically throwing it at Rupe and Sox pitcher Frank Castillo hitting Randy Winn in an act of reprisal for everything else that had gone on. A little more than two months later on July 18, 2002, things got heated once again, as the night after Manny Ramirez hit a home run and a double against Tampa, he was hit by Rays starter Tanyon Sturtze up high in the first inning and had to duck from a pitch in the ninth inning. The Sox, however, got their retribution when Rays batter Brent Abernathy was hit by both Boston pitchers Fank Castillo and Tim Wakefield (how much could that possibly hurt) that same game, and later on that year on September 9, 2002, Red Sox pitcher David Lowe hit Felix Escalona with a pitch as more retaliation for the Rays hitting Manny. The total contempt between the Red Sox and the Rays continued over the next few years, including in 2004 when Red Sox starter Bronson Arroyo hit both Aubrey Huff and Tino Martinez, which led to a Devil Rays retaliation of Scott Kazmir plunking Boston sluggers Manny Ramirez and Kevin Millar on back-to-back at-bats, and also in 2005 when Lance Carter threw at the head of both Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz, causing the benches to empty and providing yet another example of an early incident that established the backdrop for what is now a very strained and sour rivalry between the squads.

Now more than ever, the Red Sox and Rays AL East rivalry is at such a point that when the clubs come together on the ball field, there is always some real tangible edginess and hatred that can be seen during every contest, even more so than the normal dislike that two divisional opponents have for one another just by the sheer annoyance of having to play the team so many times in a season. When Joe Maddon came to Tampa in 2006 after working with the Angels for many years, he had to change the entire culture of a team that had went eight straight seasons with more than 90 losses. Although it would take him two full years and two more seasons of 90 plus losses to do so (they did have the worst record in the MLB in his first year with the team), Maddon has turned the Rays into a very formidable ballclub that teams really do not like to play, not only because of their really good pitching staff and Evan Longoria at the plate, but also because every player on the entire roster is ruthless and unyielding. More often than not, the way pro teams play on the field closely resembles the nature of their coach and the Rays unforgiving and impulsive play comes directly from Maddon (in San Francisco, for example, their tough style of football comes right from Harbaugh's personality). One of the main ways that Maddon was able to instill this sense of fearlessness in his players was to get his team to go after their opponents so that they would no longer be seen as the feeble Rays, a team whose most successful season before Maddon showed up was a 70-91 campaign in 2004 under Lou Piniella, where they still finished 30.5 games behind the divisional leading New York Yankees.

And so we turn to the Red Sox and the Rays as the perfect match for two major leagues teams to create the most heated rivalry in all of sports at this current time. Under Maddon, Tampa Bay has desperately tried to distant themselves from their anemic past and has taken very ostensible strides to show the baseball world that they are not afraid of getting under the skin of their opponents, no matter which team they are playing, and that includes their divisional foe the Red Sox. On the other side of things, Boston was picked on by the baseball world and the baseball gods from 1918 all the way until 2004 when they finally broke the Curse of the Bambino (long live the curse of the billy goat), so when opposing ballclubs try to take advantage of the Red Sox they will have none of it, even more so than other teams because of all the hardships but also toughness that is bred into the city and the players that compete at Fenway Park. With the Rays refusing to back down from any other team regardless of the circumstances and the Red Sox always feeling very protective about themselves, the Sox and the Rays getting into some uneasy altercations over the years was more destined to happen than Kevin Love trying to leave the circus that is disguised as the Minnesota Timberwolves (Flip Saunders lost in the first round of 7 straight NBA playoffs from 1997 to 2003 with the T-Wolves and KG, was never able to get a very experienced Pistons over the hump after they made two consecutive NBA finals with Larry Brown, and was downright terrible in Washington and is now somehow the coach of Minnesota again and is also their President and a part-owner. The Timberwolves have missed out of 10 straight postseasons and now much should change with Flip in charge). Whenever Boston and Tampa Bay do come together, it always feels like we could get a round of Gatti vs Ward because of all the enmity between the clubs.

In a series in the summer of 2008, the rivalry between Boston and Tampa Bay really began to intensify to the point of no return (if you haven't seen the 1993 movie with that name I would definitely advise that you watch it on a side note). On June 4th, in a testy game between the clubs, Coco Crisp was upset with Rays shortstop Jason Bartlett blocking the base with his knee and causing the Red Sox outfielder to injure his thumb on a steal in the 6th inning, so Crisp took Rays second baseman Akinori Iwamura right out two innings later on another stolen base attempt. Later that inning, Joe Maddon and Coco Crisp exchanged some words during a pitching change (they weren't asking each other out for coffee either) and it set off a change of events that would occur the next day at Fenway Park that would display the full bitterness present in the blossoming rivalry. In the second inning of the ballgame on June 5th, James Shields threw at Coco and hit him in the hip and after Crisp dropped his bat and waited for a second it was on like Pacquiao vs Marquez in a very heated and very large benches clearing brawl between the teams. Shields, who I was happy to see leave Tampa Bay for the Kansas City Royals in the trade for Wil Myers in 2012 because he always killed the Red Sox (Boston had a .252 batting average and just a .409 slugging percentage against Shields in 25 games), Crisp, and ironically enough future Red Sox World Series Champion and one of the best team players to have in sports, Jonny Gomes, were all ejected for throwing punches in the fight that would come to symbolize the rancor between the clubs, especially since Maddon imparted a new sense of boldness in his players.

The growing issues between the teams has been evident over the past several years with the variety of on and off field altercations that have occurred at Fenway Park, Tropicana Field, and beyond, which is why the rivalry has so much built up bad blood. In game 1 of the ALCS in 2008, Grant Balfour, who was amazing with the A's last season with 38 saves and just 3 blown saves and is now back with Tampa, hit J.D. Drew in the shoulder, a pitch up so high that it caused some Red Sox players to yell at the hurler from the dugout. In 2012, the rivalry really amped up after Adrian Gonzalez was hit by Rays pitcher Matt Moore and Red Sox lefty Franklin Morales retaliated by plunking Will Rhymes, who would later pass out on the field after taking the hard mid 90's fastball to his right elbow. In the following series, Burke Badenhop of the Rays hit Red Sox star second baseman Dustin Pedroia and a pitch sailed over the head of Daniel Nava because Tampa was so upset with what had happened to Rhymes the week before. With the nature of baseball, however, Boston could not just let Tampa hit their stars, especially after they thought Morales was just pitching inside to Rhymes, so this time Morales, who seems to be at the center of all this, threw behind Luke Scott, then tossed two pitches inside, before finally hitting him in the leg on May 25, causing the benches to clear and showing even more outward anger and acrimony between the ballclubs. In June of last season, the animosity that is apparent in the rivalry continued, as John Lackey drilled Rays outfielder Matt Joyce in the back, causing the benches to clear after the always cantankerous Lackey was upset that Joyce took his time rounding the bases on a first inning home run and then dropped his bat like he had hit a homer on a 3-0 swing in his next at-bat when the ball was actually foul, which led to the surly Lackey shouting at the Rays dugout. Joe Maddon said Lackey was a "bad teammate [because] he can get one of his own players hurt," suggesting that the Rays would not be backing down and that they would have some sort of retribution to continue the derision in the rivalry. On May 25 of this year, the Red Sox and Rays were pushing and shoving on the field once again after the Sox, and specifically backup catcher David Ross on the bench, were upset with Yunel Escobar stealing third base on defensive indifference after Tampa was already up by five runs in the bottom of the 7th inning (this is one of baseball's unwritten rules that I don't really understand because a five run lead is by no means insurmountable, so why shouldn't a guy be allowed to try to take an extra base to add more runs. If you don't like it, stop them from scoring is the attitude I have always liked when it comes to sports whether it be a team running up the score or taking another base on a steal).

All of these past incidents had an aggregate effect on the David Price-David Ortiz fiasco that happened just this past week at Fenway Park that had Big Papi saying, "It's a war," because the Red Sox and the Rays really just hate one another. After the Rays beat the Rangers in the Wild Card tie-breaker game and then the Indians in the actual Wild Card game behind a great performance from Alex Cobb last year, they met the Sox in the ALDS. With Boston leading the series 1-0 and the Rays absolutely needing a win to have a fair chance of winning the five game series (only five times since divisional series began in 1995 had a team trailing 2-0 ever gone on to win the series with the 1995 Mariners, the 1999 Red Sox, the 2001 Yankees, the 2003 Red Sox, and the 2012 Giants being those teams), David Price was roughed up for 7 runs over 7 innings in a 7-4 Tampa loss, which included two long solo home runs from David Ortiz to right field in the 1st inning and then again in the 8th inning.

Everybody knows that feeling of frustration when even the littlest of things in life can just piss you off because you are in such a terrible mood. After David Price became the first left handed pitcher since Cliff Lee to win the AL Cy Young Award in 2012 with a 20-5 record, an AL best 2.56 ERA, and the second best AL WAR for pitchers at 6.9, Price had an uncharacteristically poor season last year and seemed frustrated each time he took the mound with his inability to locate his pitches and find the same success as the year before. Despite throwing a 2 run, complete game for the Rays against the Rangers in their big one game playoff victory, Price seemed agitated all afternoon against the Sox in his ALDS loss to John Lackey, who was somehow the Sox biggest bulldog and fighter last season. Meanwhile, anybody who has watched the Red Sox over the years knows that David Ortiz likes to watch and admire his home runs (he was plunked by Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia in 2011 after staring at some of his home run balls from earlier in the series), and I would too if I was Ortiz and averaged 34 home runs, 108 RBI's, and a .572 slugging percentage from 2003 to 2013. However, David Price does not quite agree with that logic and on Big Papi's second home run in game 2 of the ALDS, Price was undoubtedly upset with Papi sitting back and watching his ball at home plate all the way until it sailed over the Pesky Pole in right field. Price said after the game, "He knows how I've pitched him the last year and a half, probably two years. He steps in the bucket and he hits a homer, and he stares at it to see if it's fair or foul - I'm sure that's what he'd say. But as soon as he hit it and I saw it, I knew it was fair. Run." Baseball players are typically very sensitive, especially pitchers, and they remember guys that they think showed them up in any type of fashion for the next time they go up against that same opponent whether it be the next game or years down the line. Price seemed to be a little bit exasperated throughout the 2013 season, and so when that frustration is boiling up and somebody like Papi in a big game doesn't leave the batters box and watches a home run all the way until it is out of the park for his second of the game, even if he is just seeing if the ball is going fair or foul, that sense of irritation leads to a pitcher becoming even more upset with the batter than usual.

Going into the Red Sox-Rays three game series this year from May 30 to June 1 and knowing the history of the teams and all the hatred they have for one another, and with the clubs playing just five days after they had just had a benches clearing brawl because of the Yunel Escobar stolen base, major league baseball likely should have given both team warnings before the game to let them know that they would not tolerate any throwing at batters (major league rules states, "If, in the umpire's judgment, circumstances warrant, both teams may be officially "warned" prior to the game or at any time during the game.") Although as David Ortiz said after the game, "Later on he [Price] called me and apologized because he knows he was wrong. He apologized in public [for criticizing TBS analysts Dirk Hayhust and Tom Verducci]. He apologized to myself. Everything was cool," the MLB still had every right to tell the umps to warn both teams before the game so that they could ensure that the revengeful Price would not get caught up in his attempts to get back at Ortiz and the Sox.

However, they did not and of course on the first pitch of Big Papi's first at-bat of the season against Price, he was nailed with a 94 mph fastball right in the back, causing Ortiz to give the "I can't believe he just did that look" and Red Sox manager John Farrell to got tossed. Despite both benches getting warned because of the obvious intent of Price throwing at Papi, the left hander was surprisingly not ejected after he hit Mike Carp up in the arms in the 4th inning. Ortiz, who is a very prideful and emotional guy that likes to be shown a certain amount of respect because of all that he has accomplished in his career, was absolutely furious with Price for throwing inside to Carp when the benches cleared after he had already hit him and Red Sox bench coach Torey Lovullo was then ejected. As an act of reprisal to get back at the Rays for hitting Ortiz and Carp, one undoubtedly intentionally and the other one whose intent can be debated, Boston starter Brandon Workman threw behind Rays star Evan Longoria and was tossed along with the third Red Sox manager of the day, Brian Butterfield.

If you think that three hits batters (Jonny Gomes was unintentionally hit in the 10th inning by Rays reliever Joel Peralta), a pitch behind a batter, and four different Red Sox managers wasn't good enough for the next chapter of the Red Sox-Rays bad blood, the post-game comments by the clubs only added on to the disgust that is present in the rivalry that is growing to the point where it is the most heated in all of sports and has more bickering than George and Martha in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. David Ortiz said, "Next time I see him [Price], he better put his gloves on. I have no respect for him anymore... It is over now. I have no respect for him... You can't be acting like a girl out there... If you are going to be acting like a little b---- every time you give it up and put your teammates in jeopardy, that is going to cost you," while Price replied, "Nobody's bigger than the game of baseball. You ask pitchers from 10-15-20 years ago. That's normal, part of the game."

From a casual baseball fan perspective, the latest drama in the Red Sox-Rays rivalry could not get any better because it adds even more fuel to the fire and puts hostilities to a new high between the clubs. Although I don't think that baseball should be as controlling as the mother in Black Swan and micromanage teams before games, I am still adamant that the umpires should have stepped in before this particular contest to do something because of the circumstances of the rivalry, especially with Price on the mound after what hew angrily said about Ortiz after game 2 in the ALDS in 2013. The big problem that arose in the game on May 30th was that not only did the Red Sox not have a chance to get retribution for Price hitting Ortiz because of the warnings to both benches, but the former Cy Young winner was not even tossed after hitting another batter, which seems to not be very fair or balanced and will only lead to more antipathy in the future. Regardless of your stance on the right for a player to throw at a guy for not running around the bases fast enough, staring at his hit for too long by celebrating a home run, taking an extra base with a big lead in a game, running acorss the pitchers mound, or flipping the bat, you can't argue against guys standing up for their teammates because if you don't, you lose the respect of your entire ballclub no matter what and that is what divides teams. If you place a dirty hit on Alexander Steen, T.J. Oshie, or David Backes of the St. Louis Blues, Ryan Reaves will let you know about it, and the same goes for baseball players protecting each other. Lukily for us baeball fans, the Red Sox and Rays play 10 more times just this season to settle the score in the game's most passionate and testy rivalry, so as David Ortiz said, "It's on."