Georgia football: Rivalry with Florida is no cocktail party

The Georgia football rivalry with Florida is not for the faint of heart, and this year’s edition could be particularly ugly.

Georgia football fans are preparing for what is known as the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party. It’s the annual scrum with the Florida Gators on the banks of the St. John’s River in Jacksonville, Florida.

While the yearly event may have a festive sound to it by calling it the Cocktail Party, rest assured, on the turf at TIAA Bank Field (or, as us old-timers call it, the Gator Bowl) the atmosphere is never one of jollity.

To say Georgia and Florida don’t like each other is to say that the Democrats don’t like Donald Trump or that Dale Earnhardt fans didn’t like Jeff Gordon. This is deep-rooted hatred. Georgia always wants Florida to lose, and the same is true from the other direction.

Want to make a Georgia football fan twitch? Just walk up and say “Steve Spurrier” or “Tim Tebow“.

Want to see a Florida football fan spill their Keystone Light on their jorts? Whisper in their ear the words “Lindsay Scott” or “Jarvis Jones“.

This is a rivalry so full of venom that even quintessential nice guy Mark Richt flipped the virtual middle finger at the Gators by telling the team to purposely induce an excessive celebration penalty by celebrating en masse in the Gators endzone.

If Georgia’s rivalry with Georgia Tech is “Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate”, then the rivalry with the Gators should probably be labeled “The Deepest, Dirtiest Hate in the Southeast”.

And when it comes to the game itself, all bets are off. Upsets are commonplace, and blowouts are not only tolerated but encouraged by the winning coach.

It doesn’t matter who already beat who this season. Overall records don’t matter. Rankings don’t matter. All that matters in the Cocktail Party is who wants it more. Who’s hungrier. This isn’t light-hearted Georgia Tech-Esque hate for the Bulldogs. This is a rivalry that sits deep in your gut.

Both teams ranked in the Top 10. Both teams jockeying for the lead in the SEC East. Both teams carrying College Football Playoff hopes in their back pockets. The talking heads can banter on for days about how high the stakes are in this game.

It doesn’t matter.

It’s Florida. The stakes are always high. A win in this game is the sweetest thing there is for a Georgia football fan outside of a national championship. Lose some games and the fans get restless. Beat Florida, and all is forgiven for a time.