College football rivalries are as good today as I ever remember. There are legitimate pro football rivalries today.

Certainly, pro sports has undergone a financial transformation in the past 40 years or so. Increased revenue from tv, sponsorships, merchandise, swelling gate receipts and corporate patronage resulted in an ongoing tug of war between ownership and players over their perceived fair share of the pie. I don't condemn either side for this. The emergence of free agency, which was the necessary result of the baseball owners' stubborn and greedy embrace of the reserve clause, has also diminished the intesity of rivalries a little bit.

I remember in the late 70s or early 80s when the NFL players were threatening a strike, the players, just prior to the game, would meet in the middle of the field and exchange handshakes in a sign of solidarity. This at the time was bizarre. Football players weren't supposed to do that. It was supposed to be team against team, and this new order pitted player against management.

I think there are still good rivalries in sports. Some endure, and others develop. For a good rivalry there must be an equilibrium of power. Yankees/Red Sox head to head has been pretty even this decade. In the late 80s to mid 90s, the Yankees were mediocre and the rivalry lost some of its shine. Nothing fueled the rivalry more than some of the fights between the team (Fisk and Nettles...with Bill Lee separating his shoulder) (Varitek and A-Rod) (Pedro and Popeye).