The old saying goes: Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.
But for these celebrity sports fans, friends and co-stars may become enemies on game day. A few have taken their feuds to the forefront, and the results are as entertaining as you might have guessed. From TV lovebirds to superhero pals, the stars aren’t afraid to cheer on their respective teams and enjoy some lighthearted smack talk along the way.
Here are four sports-induced celebrity rivalries worth remembering.
Back in The Office days, John Krasinski and Jenna Fischer’s onscreen romance as Jim and Pam captured hearts—but offscreen, the actors are bitter sports rivals. Their good-natured yet passionate competitiveness came to a boil with the recent Stanley Cup in June. Krasinski rooted on the Bruins and Fischer boasted her Blues pride as the two teams made their way through the finals.
In an interview with NBC, Fischer explained that she and Krasinski have a lengthy feud that dates back to the 2013 World Series when the Red Sox and the Cardinals faced off. In fact, many other members of the cast joined in on the conflict.
“Phyllis [Smith] and I—Phyllis is from St. Louis—we would be in my trailer cheering for the Cardinals. And [Krasinski] had B.J. [Novak] and Steve Carell in his trailer cheering for the Red Sox, and they swept us in four games," Fischer said. This time, the actors took their banter to Twitter in a series of back and forths. For Game 7, Krasinski sat beside David Denman (who played Pam’s ex-fiancé Roy on the show) in a hilarious dig at Fischer.
In the end, Fischer’s team pulled through, and Krasinski handled defeat like a champ.
Captain America and Star-Lord traded intergalactic battles for an earthly rivalry. Ahead of the 2015 Super Bowl, Chris Evans bet Chris Pratt that if the Patriots (his team) defeated the Seahawks (Pratt’s team), Pratt would visit Boston charity Christopher’s Haven dressed as Star-Lord (with a Patriots jersey to top it off). If Evans lost, he would don Cap’s suit to visit Seattle Children’s Hospital.
The Patriots took home the win that year, and Pratt lost the bet. But both of them visited the two charities, interacting with the patients and taking pictures with children—definitely a win-win.
The faux-feud between Matt Damon and Jimmy Kimmel runs much deeper than sports. For approximately 13 years, the two have engaged in a bit that started with sporadic banter and evolved into music video clips, Oscar jabs and elaborate pranks. The 2018 World Series provided another opportunity for the men to air their dirty laundry. Boston-bred Damon wore red for the Red Sox and Kimmel wore blue for the Los Angeles Dodgers at Game 5. Both shirts read: “I’M WITH STUPID” with arrows pointing to each other. Classic.
The Red Sox won Game 5 and the series, but the Damon-Kimmel feud has no end in sight.
The Bruins-Blues games pegged another set of co-stars against each other. Mad Men stars Jon Hamm (Don Draper) and John Slattery (Roger Sterling, Draper’s boss) found themselves on opposite sides of the Stanley Cup this year. Both men have established reputations as tireless fans of their respective teams, even through droughts and disappointments.
Hamm’s devotion to the Blues started as a kid growing up in St. Louis and going to games with his father. He bemoaned that the last time the Blues appeared in the Stanley Cup he wasn’t even born (“I was negative one”). Slattery’s been a longtime Boston fan and acknowledged that despite the city’s recent victories in the Super Bowl and World Series, it hasn’t always been that way.
“I know how desperate Jon Hamm feels,” Slattery said.
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