The Greatest NFL Rivalries Of All Time
From decades of bad blood to games that decided championships, these NFL rivalries prove that sometimes hating the other team is half the fun.
Black News 
One of the things that makes sports so much fun is that winning isn’t always the only thing that matters. Sometimes, who you beat means almost as much. Rivalries give fans an opponent they can circle on the schedule months in advance, creating bragging rights that can last an entire year and turning even an otherwise forgettable season into a memorable one with the right victory.
Football takes that feeling to another level. NFL teams get only 17 regular-season games; division opponents see each other twice a year, and one loss can completely change a playoff race. Unlike sports where rivals may play each other a dozen times or more, there aren’t many opportunities to get revenge — which means every meeting carries a little extra weight.
Then you add generations of fans, legendary players, controversial calls, playoff heartbreak and cities that genuinely don’t like one another, and you get rivalries that become part of NFL history. Some have been around for more than a century. Others became legendary because the teams constantly crossed paths when championships were on the line. With another NFL season here, it’s only right to revisit some of the matchups that have produced the most hatred, drama and unforgettable football. Here are 10 of the greatest rivalries the league has ever seen.
Green Bay Packers vs. Chicago Bears
You really can’t make this list without starting here. Dating back to 1921, Packers-Bears is the NFL’s oldest rivalry, connecting two of the league’s foundational franchises and generations of legends from George Halas and Vince Lombardi to Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers. The rivalry has even reached the NFC Championship Game, where Green Bay beat Chicago following the 2010 season on its way to winning Super Bowl XLV. More than a century later, something still feels different about seeing those green-and-gold jerseys lined up across from Chicago’s navy and orange.
Baltimore Ravens vs. Pittsburgh Steelers
There may not be another modern NFL rivalry that better represents old-fashioned, physical football. For years, Ravens-Steelers games were built around brutal defenses featuring names like Ray Lewis, Ed Reed, Terrell Suggs, Troy Polamalu and James Harrison, with the AFC North often hanging in the balance. Pittsburgh and Baltimore have also met repeatedly in the postseason, making the rivalry about much more than regular season bragging rights. Even as the personnel changes, these games still tend to feel like somebody is leaving the stadium sore.
Dallas Cowboys vs. Philadelphia Eagles
If we’re talking pure hatred, Cowboys-Eagles has to be somewhere near the top. Philadelphia fans have never needed much motivation to dislike Dallas, and the Cowboys’ “America’s Team” identity only makes them an easier villain inside the NFC East. From Buddy Ryan’s Eagles and the infamous Bounty Bowl era to Michael Irvin’s career-ending injury at Veterans Stadium and decades of heated division races, there is plenty of history here. You don’t even need both teams to be contenders for the game to feel personal.
San Francisco 49ers vs. Dallas Cowboys
Few rivalries have produced more iconic postseason moments than Cowboys-49ers. “The Catch” in the 1981 NFC Championship Game helped launch San Francisco’s dynasty, while Dallas and San Francisco’s loaded 1990s teams met in three straight NFC Championship Games from 1992 through 1994. That meant Joe Montana, Steve Young, Jerry Rice and Deion Sanders on one side of the rivalry’s history and Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin on the other. The teams’ renewed playoff meetings in the 2020s proved that decades of separation couldn’t completely kill the tension.
Kansas City Chiefs vs. Las Vegas Raiders
Before Patrick Mahomes, before Las Vegas and even before the AFL-NFL merger, the Chiefs and Raiders already couldn’t stand each other. The rivalry dates to 1960, when Kansas City was still known as the Dallas Texans, and its early years featured fights, controversial finishes and games with AFL championship implications. The balance of power has changed throughout the decades, but the Raiders’ rebellious identity matched against Kansas City’s passionate Arrowhead crowd has always made this one special. The Chiefs now own the all-time advantage, but the history behind these AFC West enemies runs much deeper than the recent records suggest.
New York Giants vs. Philadelphia Eagles
The NFC East could honestly produce an entire rivalry list by itself. Giants-Eagles has survived generations of players and produced everything from Chuck Bednarik’s famous hit on Frank Gifford to the Miracle at the Meadowlands and DeSean Jackson’s incredible walk-off punt return in 2010. New York and Philadelphia already have one of the nastiest geographic rivalries in American sports, so football only adds fuel to it. When these two teams meet, old history has a way of getting brought right back up.
Dallas Cowboys vs. Washington Commanders
For decades, Cowboys-Washington was one of the NFL’s signature rivalries. The franchises regularly battled for NFC supremacy during the 1970s and 1980s, including two NFC Championship Game meetings, while stars like Roger Staubach, Joe Theismann, John Riggins and Tony Dorsett became part of its history. The rivalry cooled somewhat as Washington went through years of instability, but longtime fans still understand how serious this matchup once was. When both franchises are competitive at the same time, few NFC East games have deeper roots.
Cleveland Browns vs. Pittsburgh Steelers
There is something beautifully simple about two neighboring football cities that have disliked each other forever. Cleveland and Pittsburgh first met in 1950, and the rivalry became even more intense once both landed in the AFC Central after the merger. Pittsburgh’s decades of success created an imbalance in portions of the series, but Cleveland’s stunning upset of the Steelers in the 2020 playoffs showed exactly how much beating Pittsburgh can still mean to Browns fans. Geography, division history and two football-obsessed fan bases keep this rivalry alive.
Atlanta Falcons vs. New Orleans Saints
Falcons-Saints doesn’t always get the national attention of some rivalries on this list, but ask anybody from Atlanta or New Orleans how they feel about the other team. The NFC South enemies have been playing since 1967, and the series has featured extended winning streaks by both franchises, overtime games and an unusually high number of close finishes. The cultural rivalry between the two Southern cities only strengthens the football rivalry. For Saints and Falcons fans, sweeping the other team can sometimes make a bad season feel just a little bit better.
New England Patriots vs. New York Jets
The Patriots and Jets have shared a division since their AFL days, but the rivalry became particularly nasty around the turn of the century. Bill Parcells coached both organizations, Bill Belichick famously resigned as “HC of the NYJ” before taking over in New England, and the eventual Belichick-Tom Brady dynasty gave Jets fans a villain that haunted them for two decades. New York did get one enormous moment of revenge when Rex Ryan’s Jets stunned the Patriots in the 2010 divisional playoffs. Between the coaching drama, Spygate accusations, memorable trash talk and the general Boston-New York sports rivalry, this one has always had plenty happening beyond the field.
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