SENDING THE COULD SHOULDER: THE STORY BEHIND ANOTHER ALTERNATE NFL
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-From the ESPN 30 for 30 documentary “Sending the Cold Shoulder”
What If I told you, that while one arms race was ending, another one began? That total domination was expected, and anything less was a disappointment.
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-Steve Young, 2/12/08
Everyone has your standard rivalries. Yankees-Red Sox, Leafs-Canadiens, Ya know. Those you can’t ignore if you live there. The rivalry between them is inseparable because they’re right outside your back door. You can’t go outside your city without them heckling you. But between the Bears and the 49ers, it just felt different. Like if you’re from Utah, you don’t have to pick between the Yanks and the Sox. They’re far away, who cares? But the Niners-Bears seemed different. Everyone had a side. Everywhere you went, someone had an opinion. Because they are from different parts of the country, it affected EVERYONE. Literally, the whole country was divided between us. To be honest, I might compare the division to the Civil War. It’s just remarkable how this all started by that game. I guess when you’re that good for that long, you just naturally hate each other. The only thing that drove the rivalry in the 80’s was just the big games but now it’s bigger than that. Before you wanted to win so you could beat them. For the first couple of years it was just automatic that you played them in the playoff. Now you just never want them to win. But meeting them in the playoffs was always fun. It was fun just to rub it into their faces when you held that trophy.
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-From SI interview with William “Refrigerator” Perry. 2/21/09
Peter King: Who was your favorite team to play against?
Perry: (without hesitation) The 49ers
PK: Not the Packers?
WP: No. The Packers were nice to beat and stuff, but they weren’t very good. They were our rival, but we went in knowing we were going to win. When I played the Niners, I knew it was going to be a good game. It would matter one way or another. And after, well, you know...
PK: The Game?
WP: Yeah, uh, after that it was pretty hard not to hate the Niners. To us, the 49ers represented the worst in the world, and if we didn’t beat them, it was a sad day.