NFL Rivals Week: A Favor For the Fans

Hey NFL, do the fans a favor. Give us a rivals week. One week a year, every year, where NFL teams play their natural rivals.

Why do the Giants and the Jets only meet every few years? Why not every year?

Baseball improved its popularity with interleague play. So why not tweak your scheduling to improve your product?

Fans shell out big bucks for the personal-seat-license scams, DirecTV NFL packages, high ticket prices, eight-dollar beers, and six-dollar hot dogs. How about giving back something enjoyable?

Not to mention all those taxpayer dollars thrown the NFL's way.

Rivals week would only help the NFL's immense popularity.

Doubters say that each team does not have a natural rival.

Well, we went to the moon, so maybe we can create rivals for those lacking natural enemies. The best bet is to stay as regional as possible. Or utilize old AFL-NFL rivals as building blocks.

The easy ones are New York Giants vs. New York Jets, San Francisco Forty-Niners vs. Oakland Raiders, Washington Redskins vs. Baltimore Ravens, Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Philadelphia Eagles, Kansas City Chiefs vs. St. Louis Rams, and Dallas Cowboys vs. Houston Texans. Twelve teams down. Ten more games to go.

Lets see. How about: Tampa Bay Bucs vs. Miami Dolphins, San Diego Chargers vs. Seattle Seahawks, New Orleans Saints vs. Tennessee Titans, Denver Broncos vs. Arizona Cardinals, Jacksonville Jaguars vs. Atlanta Falcons, Indianapolis Colts vs. Chicago Bears, New England Patriots vs. Carolina Panthers, Cleveland Browns vs. Detroit Lions, Buffalo Bills vs. Green Bay Packers, and Minnesota Vikings vs. Cincinnati Bengals.

That's not so bad, eh? For a start anyway.

Sure, some are a bit of a stretch, but once they meet yearly, a natural rivalry will grow.

The blockbuster games will make up for the very few weak sisters.

The Beltway battle in Baltimore. War for New York. Battle of the bays in Oakland. The Texas toss up. The melee for the Mississippi. The Western Roundup. Florida Fury. The Missouri matchup. The Pennsylvania pin down.

Play 'em all on the same weekend.

You get the picture.

The ratings would explode, and the networks would scramble to land the biggest matchups.

The fans would have fun, and the NFL would make even more money.

Isn't that what its all about?