One Game Doesn’t Make New Orleans Saints-Minnesota Vikings a Rivalry

July 31, 2010   ·   Keyon Jeff   ·   Jump to comments

When do NFL teams become rivals?
If they play in the same division, then they are natural rivals since they play each other twice a season (three times if they meet in the playoffs).
But what about non-divisional teams?
I pose the question because I must have read at least a dozen articles during the offseason that proclaimed the New Orleans Saints and Minnesota Vikings as either A) the NFL's newest rivalry, or B) a budding NFL rivalry.
Since the NFL announced the Saints and Vikings would kickoff the 2010 season on September 9 —a rematch of January's NFC Championship Game— the debate has raged between me and my friends in Louisiana and Minnesota.
They say the rivalry is real; I say it is imaginary.
The Saints are 8-20 (.285) all-time against the Vikings, its fourth worst record versus any NFL team.
Before their 31-28 overtime victory in the NFC title game, the Saints had lost twic...

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