The Biggest Sports Rivalries of 2018

With the year winding down, here’s a review of some of the biggest sports rivalries from the 2018 calendar year.

The star cornerback’s play was as explosive as his trash talk in 2017. In 2018, his trash talk eclipsed his play. The cornerback entered the season by ripping into just about every quarterback in the NFL in an interview with GQ.

Josh Allen? Trash. Joe Flacco and Ben Roethlisberger? They suck. Andrew Luck? Not good. Matt Ryan? Overrated.

The Jacksonville Jaguars’ 2018 season turned into a gigantic nosedive, with Ramsey’s play looking much spottier in 2018 than 2017. But here’s hoping that Ramsey loses zero confidence and zero inclination to speak his mind. The NFL needs a heavy dose of players like Ramsey. It’s just more fun when he’s talking.

Next up: LeBron vs. Warriors

In 2018, the Cleveland Cavaliers’ rivalry with the Warriors came to an anticlimactic conclusion. LeBron, however, is doing his best to prevent a Golden State dynasty. And because the Cavaliers’ rivalry with the Warriors had faded, LeBron went to Los Angeles to begin building for the final stages of his career when he’ll hope to knock off Golden State’s super team.

Perhaps LeBron is ahead of schedule in L.A. with the Lakers blowing out the Warriors on Christmas. LeBron only had to play three quarters. (He left the game with a non-severe injury.)

The Warriors are sitting high and mighty for the time being. But the shifting tectonics of the NBA (the impending free agency of Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson, Kawhi Leonard and Jimmy Butler and increased trade possibility of Anthony Davis) could spin this rivalry in LeBron’s favor in the new year.

Next up: Sox vs. Yankees

An ancient rivalry by the standards of American sports, the feud between Boston and New York is back. Clearly two of the best teams in baseball for the entire 2018 season, the Sox and Yanks were at each other’s throats.

Exhibit A:

The best moment of this year’s rivalry came when Joe Kelly threw a 98 mile per hour fastball at Tyler Austin, who then charged the mound and started a bench-clearing brawl (as shown in video above).

The Sox won 10 of 19 games against the Yankees during the regular season before Boston beat the Yankees in the ALDS, 3-1. That series may have been the closest any team got to beating the Sox in the playoffs, with Boston winning by a one-run margin in two of their wins. They tended to rout their opponents in the series that followed.

Next up: Steve Smith vs. Michael Irvin

Michael Irvin stepped on Steve Smith’s toes by saying Joe Flacco has never had an “I-trust-you receiver” since Anquan Boldin. (Smith, of course, played with Flacco.) Smith then hammered Irvin.

Things got personal.

They followed up, but they didn’t really make up.

Next up: A divorced Browns duo

We can finally get a sense of just how little Mayfield liked playing for Jackson. On “Hard Knocks,” Mayfield always seemed uncomfortable with Jackson’s coaching. It wasn’t totally clear if Mayfield’s skepticism was because he was a diva or because Jackson was incompetent. With some hindsight, Mayfield was probably just observing the inferior leadership of Jackson when compared to Oklahoma’s Lincoln Riley, who Mayfield played under in college.

Mayfield did his best to support Jackson while they were on the same team. When Jackson joined the Bengals after the Browns fired him, he gave Mayfield an excuse for hatred, and the quarterback latched onto the feud. Mayfield has done nothing but escalate the hate, with death stares and trash talk. The problem with this rivalry is that Jackson may not be in the league much longer. We may not get many more episodes of this miniseries.

Next up: A pair of ESPN talent

Even Dan Le Batard, Stugotz’s radio show partner, was willing to admit: Stugotz brings something unique out of Wilbon. The two ESPN employees were at each other’s throats earlier this year while discussing NBA news. Wilbon accused Stugotz of forming uninformed, knee-jerk opinions, and ultimately refused to speak with Stugotz, instead only addressing LeBatard during an incredibly awkward radio segment.

“I find Stugotz loathsome,” Wilbon told The Big Lead in December.

OK then.

The two hosts can’t occupy the same radio space with civility. And that spills over, even when they’re not on the same radio space. For example, Stugotz was furious that The Big Lead named Tony Kornheiser and Wilbon as the top tandem in sports media. Naturally, Stugotz spoke his mind on radio.

Next up: Ohio State vs. a reporter

Stadium reporter McMurphy has covered every step (and every misstep) for former Ohio State Buckeyes receiver coach Zach Smith, who got fired in 2018 due to allegations of domestic assault. McMurphy broke the news of those allegations in July 2018.

But that’s not all McMurphy reported about Smith. Here’s one of McMurphy’s reports from August:

"Documents and receipts Stadium has obtained show Zach Smith ordered more than $2,200 in sex toys, male apparel and photography equipment and had the items delivered to him at Ohio State’s Woody Hayes Athletic Center in 2015."

And then there’s the report of Smith’s flagrant racism, when Smith called a former Buckeyes receiver a racial slur. The controversial report has been refuted by so many members of Ohio State that Urban Meyer suggested the university would explore grounds for defamation.

Whether it escalates into a legal battle, this feud doesn’t seem like it’s going away.