TEMPE, Ariz. -- For seven years, four months and 18 days, Andrew Wingard held a grudge against Trey McBride.
It all started with a play that has faded into a distant memory. Few can recall the moment on that Oct. 26, 2018, night, when Colorado State and Wyoming played the 110th edition of their Border War rivalry. The way Wingard, a senior on that Cowboys team, tells it, he was on the ground after making a tackle when McBride, a Rams freshman tight end at the time, speared him in the back and kneed him in the ribs.
Wingard took offense -- and then some.
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McBride, on the other hand, contests Wingard's account of the play.
"I don't know about the spear in the back, things like that," said McBride, currently a star tight end for the Arizona Cardinals. "It was just playing through the whistle, whatever it is.
"Me and him got a little tangled up. It was unfortunate, but yes, he's held a grudge for a while."
But McBride didn't realize how long Wingard held a grudge.
"I knew he was frustrated at the play," McBride said. "The whole fanbase was mad at me, Wyoming. But like I said, it was such a long time ago. I honestly, it kind of spaced my mind.
"And then as you see him throughout your years and you keep playing against him, you just kind of always go back to like, man, hopefully he forgot about it, and he never did."
Wingard had chances to let it go, but he wouldn't. He carried it from the mountains of Fort Collins, Colorado, site of Saturday's 118th Border War, to the plains of Laramie, Wyoming, to the shores of Jacksonville, Florida, to cities around the NFL. After the two faced each other in November when Wingard was still playing for the Jaguars, McBride came over to Wingard to tell him he respected him. All Wingard could say in response was "F--- you." Looking back on it now, Wingard regrets that he didn't leave his feelings inside the white lines during the 60 minutes they played.
But in March, Wingard finally released his grudge against McBride in the Arizona desert.
It was time, Wingard felt. The two were no longer bitter college rivals. Wingard was signing with the Cardinals as a free agent, and they were going to be teammates. As fate would have it, the first person Wingard saw when he arrived at the Cardinals' practice facility in Arizona to sign his contract on March 16 was McBride.