Lions vs. Buccaneers: Is Detroit-Tampa Bay NFL's Next Great Rivalry?

In American professional sports, rivalries are all but dead. For the most part, they're a figment of fans' imaginations. The players on the field want to do their best, of course, and want to win.

But they don't "hate" the guys on the other side of the field because they wear the rival's colors. Traditional rivalries are a big deal to the fans in the stands, but they're just another day at the office for the grown men playing the game.

There are a few professional rivalries that really mean something. They're not fostered by geography or class or religion or any of the usual causes that shape great sporting rivalries. They're not decades old with dozens of heated contests between them.

No, modern professional athletes only feel that extra burn when they're playing against a team they, personally, have played meaningful games against before.

The pro teams that develop real rivalries repeatedly slug it out for wild card berths, or for their division crown, or in the playoffs. They play games that matter to both sides, over and over, with the same core of players. Great plays, bad calls, crucial mistakes and clutch performances are all magnified when seasons are on the line, and it's these moments from which rivalries are born.

Think of the hottest rivalries in the NFL: Patriots vs. Jets. Steelers vs. Ravens. Colts vs. Patriots. Ravens vs. Jets.

They come from the same players on the same teams playing each other for high stakes, over and over. Familiarity breeds contempt, they say, and taking turns ending each other's seasons breeds bad blood.

The Detroit Lions and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have the makings of the next great NFL rivalry. Though they were once divisional "rivals," they rarely (if ever) played meaningful games in the 70s, 80s, and 90s.

Mostly, the two franchises took turns being either "awful" or "inconsistent", and none of the players or coaches or executives on either team remembers those days, anyway.

Now, both teams have young coaching staffs doing an excellent job. Both teams have young franchise quarterbacks growing quickly into leadership roles, and both teams have rebuilt their defenses. The Lions and Bucs each believe they're prying open their championship "window" this season.

Last season, the 3-10 Lions entered Raymond James Stadium with a 26-game road losing streak they were sick of answering questions about. The 8-5 Bucs were fighting for a playoff berth, and could ill-afford to drop a game at home to a losing team. Yet, after a four-quarter grind-it-out slug fest that featured 357 yards rushing, the teams went into overtime knotted at 20.

Though Lions head coach Jim Schwartz had played down the importance of the road losing streak, his joy at Dave Rayner's 34-yard overtime winner couldn't be hidden. The Lions had the monkey off their back, and the Buccaneers' playoff ship stayed moored in the Cove.

Now, both teams must consider this game one of the most important, and most difficult, contests on their schedule. Both could get out in front of the playoff race with a win, and both might be eating dust from wire to wire with a loss.

Regardless of whether the Lions or Buccaneers win on Sunday, the lucky fans of both teams might be witnessing the birth of the next great NFL rivalry.