* Oakland vs. San Francisco
Sunday, October 8, 2006. 1:15 PM, PST.
Week 05
The 2006 Battle Of The Bay

Raider versus 49er matchups in the NFL regular season are a thing to be savored. It is the time of testing, when the bragging rights are well and truly doled out. It's not like the soft A's and Giants "rivalry" wherein one team might take a few from the other in inter-league play. is no rivalry, boy. This, this is a single game for four years' worth of vociferous braggin' rights. Drunken middle managers in gorilla suits versus blase chardonnay sippers. O-Town versus Suckafree. Hyphy versus Journey. There is no middle ground.

Come this Sunday, the hosts of both once-mighty franchises will meet. The clash is to be at The Stick on the field and in the stands, and sometime after 4:00 PM that day, the cell phone calls will begin to flit across The Bay from the victors' side to the vanquished -- smack-talkin' into voicemail boxes and crowing over the details of their rival's demise.

By SFist Christopher Rogers for "American Football Spectacular," contributing

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