A sport’s rivalry is usually fought on the battlefield of the iron-grid, ice rink, baseball diamond or whatever field it may be. Two men, though, are beginning to make a mockery of these rivalries and at the same time challenging them.
Ben Gleib and Stephen Hale are the main antagonists and protagonists of an underground series of Youtube videos called Behind Enemy Lines. In these short flicks, Gleib and Hale visit infamously violent rivalry games such as Red Sox vs. Yankees in the opposing teams spirit-wear.
The duo administers several “tests” around the hometown’s city. They rush the home team faithful with flags and rival colors. Gleib and Hale specialize in going undercover to take the opposing fans by surprise.
They particularly enjoy ruining parking lot tailgating parties. In most cases, the duo shows up to a large tailgating party dressed in opposing team apparel. They proceed to taunts and cheers to screw with the home fans.
Other tactics they use include destroying rallies outside of buildings, interrupting customers’ meals at popular local sports bars and waving rival flags in their downtown plazas.
Although fans tend to bombard the two with insults, beer bottles and assaults, Gleib and Hale continue to invade enemy territory.
These videos are still under the radar and are quite entertaining to watch. Each of the twenty or so videos are five minutes long. They only have a few thousand views per video.
But like other viral videos, this may become the hot item in the near future because of the abundance of sports fans.
To conclude each video, Gleib and Hale sum up what they accomplished over the course of the video. They state what they learned about the rivalry and compare it to others in the nation.
Behind Enemy Lines provides a funny and interesting insight into the many rivalries in sports.
