Bad Blood: The Rules of Sports' Fiercest Rivalries: Hate has a formula. This is it. (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798189844157)

Hate has a formula. This is it.

Every great rivalry looks like chaos. Two teams, two cities, two fanbases who'd rather lose to anyone else in the world than win against them. But rivalries aren't accidents. They're engineered, sustained, and sometimes killed, by forces that repeat across every sport, every era, every continent.

Bad Blood breaks it down into twelve Rules, the operating laws hiding underneath sports' most bitter feuds. Why dynasties destroy rivalries instead of building them. Why the media doesn't just cover a rivalry but co-authors it. Why the defining moment has to hurt to matter. Why some of the fiercest hatred in sports has nothing to do with championships at all.

Drawing on stories from the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, and global soccer, alongside Yankees-Red Sox, Duke-UNC, the Ryder Cup, Notre Dame-Navy, and the Merseyside Derby, Bad Blood moves past the highlight reels to show the actual mechanics: the numbers, the incentives, the moments that get manufactured and the ones that get earned.

This isn't a nostalgia trip through classic games. It's a field guide to why fans hate the way they do, and what it would take to build, break, or survive a rivalry of your own.

For anyone who's ever screamed at a TV over a team they'll never meet, Bad Blood is the book that explains why.