On Monday, John Canzano wrote an article claiming that the Oregon vs. Washington rivalry is, well, anything but a rivalry. Many say that for a rivalry to exist, the games must be competitive. That is not the case between the Ducks and Huskies as Washington hasn't come even remotely close to beating the Ducks in the last decade. Oregon's 34-17 win over the Huskies in 2011 was the closest game in the series since 2000 when the Ducks won by a touchdown.
But I'm here to tell you that this is absolutely a rivalry. It's a game that both teams and their fan bases have circled on the calendar every year. Tell Oregon and Washington fans that this isn't a rivalry and they'll think you're the one that's in a coma.
Let's start with the uniforms Oregon will wear on Saturday. The Ducks could have worn any of their endless choices of uniforms, but they went with these:
One play can change everything. Here is Saturday's uniform honoring "The Pick" #GoDucks pic.twitter.com/jkmgIzvZXI
— Oregon Football (@WinTheDay) October 14, 2014
Yes, a modern version of the jerseys they wore on that fateful October day 20 years ago when Kenny Wheaton changed the landscape of this rivalry, and Oregon football, forever. This isn't "celebrating history" or anything the athletic department claims is the reason why they are wearing these uniforms. It's a slick middle finger straight in the face of the Huskies, and it's got rivalry stamped all over it.
The scheduling of this year's game at Autzen Stadium is anything but a coincidence. The Ducks and Huskies will square off on the same field that Damon Huard and Kenny Wheaton faced each other just four days shy of the 20th anniversary of "The Pick." It's just one more middle finger to Washington.
Then there's that whole hashtag. As you can probably guess, things were a little different back in 2003, the #LastTimeUWBeatUO.
This was Apple's hottest product the #LastTimeUWBeatUO pic.twitter.com/tSSmGmijXs
— Tyson Winter (@RetrnOfTheQuacK) October 13, 2014
#LastTimeUWBeatUO Facebook was called Facemash, was 3 days old and looked like this... #goducks pic.twitter.com/O3QJKPdG3u
— Jeff Gibb (@JeffGibb) October 14, 2014
#LastTimeUWBeatUO This is what Mariota looked like. pic.twitter.com/xKIiaSHZHw
— Autzen Gnome (@Autzen_Gnome) October 14, 2014
When it's not a rivalry, fans don't spend their time coming up contributions to an annual hashtag that sweeps across Twitter.
Any day the Ducks play the Huskies (in any sport), it's known on the Oregon campus as "I Hate Washington Day." You're telling me that it's not a rivalry when students create unofficial campus holidays promoting their hatred for the other team? Yeah...sure.
Canzano says that no one under the age of 50 could possibly hate the Huskies. I'd like to send him into the student section for this game and walk out with the same opinion. He also probably wasn't at the Macklemore concert in Eugene last year when a "F**k the Huskies" chant broke out, for no other reason than Macklemore is from Seattle. He also wasn't with my friend and I at Husky Stadium in 2011 when our lives were threatened and we were physically assaulted simply for wearing green and yellow. Earlier this year, I was chatting with a fellow Seahawks fan during a game at a bar in Seattle. When we were talking about where we went to school and I told him I went to Oregon, he proceeded to call me a "little bitch" and we didn't speak the rest of the night. When your school's biggest booster watches from the sideline and says "Knocked the (expletive) out of them," after a 10th straight win, it's a rivalry. The only way you can understand the rivalry is to immerse yourself in it. The press box and the bleachers are two very different places, so excuse me when I don't respect Canzano's opinion on this rivalry, or lack thereof in his eyes.
A series between two teams doesn't need to be competitive to be a rivalry. It just needs passion, and that's one thing the Border War between the Ducks and Huskies will never lack.