Jordan Spieth at the A T & T Championship in February. Is the Masters’ champ and new golf phenom on his way to a rivalry with Rory McIlroy? Photograph by Erik Charlton.
On a recent installment of the “PBS NewsHour,” John Feinstein, author and sports columnist for The Washington Post, was asked to comment on the ascent of Jordan Spieth, golf’s latest phenom. He said he thought that Speith and Rory McIlroy had the opportunity to develop a great rivalry now and that for him, rivalries rather than dynasties make sports interesting.
Tell that to the fans of the New York Yankees, Pittsburgh Steelers, San Francisco 49ers, New England Patriots and Green Bay Packers in various eras. They’ll tell you there’s nothing sweeter than the monotony of winning year after year.
But I know what he means: Fed and Rafa, Rafa and Nole, Nole and Andy, Andy and Fed, Fed and Nole, Andy and Rafa – tennis has always thrived on great rivalries and has a round robin of them going on now. Even when you have a dynasty like the Yanks have been, they were made better by their clashes with the Bosox (even if it sometimes tore your heart out as a Bombers’ fan).
To have a rival, to paraphrase the ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes, is to have the truth forced upon you very quickly. A rival conjures the “Eye of the Tiger.” He or she makes you work for it. And though you may not pal around with him off the court or away from the pool, although Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte have always seemed pretty chummy, you will share something with him that you can never share with your wife or BFF – the will to succeed in the game you both love.
My series of novels “The Games Men Play” is all about more-than-rivals – gay tennis players and swimmers who fall in love covertly even as they battle each other on the court and in the pool (the debut book “Water Music”); quarterbacks caught in an unwitting ménage à trois looking to take the next step in commitment (the forthcoming “The Penalty for Holding”); male and female equestrians who find their competition in the ring sabotages romance away from it (the third planned book, “Criterion”).
A great rivalry – Borg-McEnroe, Affirmed and Alydar – I would agree with Feinstein is a helluva lot fun to watch.
For the participants, though, perhaps not so much.