In trying to come up with the actual rivals for all 32 NFL teams, we came to realize there are actually two kinds of sports rivalries. The first is the actual rivalry, embraced by fans of both teams who truly despise one another and what the other franchise stands for. Then there are the imaginary rivalries when fans, who are sometimes delusional about this, believe that its hatred of one team is shared by fans of the other team when, in fact, the other team doesn’t care that much.
Though, in theory, a team should only have one rival and be the rival of just one other team, it doesn’t always work out that way.