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Old 08-14-2013, 11:33 PM
 
3,040 posts, read 2,573,654 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by James420 View Post
I played both, football in high school and Semi Pro Rugby. They are completely different sports and physicality of each can't be compared. The padding and helmets in pro football make for worse and more powerful hits, linebackers and safeties would never make in Rugby tackling the way they do in football. Fans of both know this, they also know that there is nothing and I mean nothing as scary as a punt return in pro football.

Rugby is also more of a Gentlemens game, pro football is about tearing somebody's head off and standing over him while the injured player lies on the field. Rugby has never seen guys like Reggie White who was a nice guy but freakishly strong and fast, or a guy like Larry Allen who could bench close to 700lbs, much less a James Harrison type or the Suh guy from Detroit who would literally stand on your throat.

You take any 3 good O lineman in pro football who are 6'5 and 320 lbs and they would probably win a scrum by themselves. To be fair, Rugby is known as a hooligans game played by gentlemen, football isn't either.

Endurance/ Stamina goes to Rugby, strength goes to football. If Football took the helmets off then the sports would be more comparable, Or you can look at it like this, getting hit by an elephant while wearing pads, or getting hit by a horse with no pads, neither feel all that good.
You must have had a pretty 'light' experience in Rugby. A lot of what you said is correct. But, football is very much about "macho-ness". Everyone wants to be big and bad and popular. Quarter are many times treated like they are the team. Rugby is nothing like that. Everything is done as a team. They are all treated as a team.

As for the hits. Sure there is probably many that are bigger than in Rugby. But factor in the macho-ness and they know they have all that gear(a mental aspect), they purposely go for those big hits. Take away the padding and helmets, and it will be no worse than Rugby at best.

And as for 3 linebackers at 320lbs winning a scrum..NO WAY.
Scrums weigh anywhere between 1500 and 2200lbs. Most national and international pro teams average around 2000lbs. And their legs are tanks. They train for scrums and are constantly running.
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Old 08-14-2013, 11:38 PM
 
3,040 posts, read 2,573,654 times
Reputation: 665
Look at this way, if American Football was as bad ass as many Americans think, it would be popular all over the world. Fact is, it's not.
Not trying to be rude in saying that, it's just the truth. Sure it has a following overseas, one of my good friends in NZ enjoys it a lot, and is quite popular 8n a few countries. But it will never catch on like here. It's even losing steam here.
And Rugby is one of the fastest growing sports in the U.S.
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Old 08-14-2013, 11:46 PM
 
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USA to take on Canada in Rugby this weekend.

http://m.bleacherreport.com/articles...lifier-preview
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Old 08-15-2013, 08:31 AM
JJG
 
Location: Fort Worth
13,612 posts, read 22,841,032 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jean71 View Post
No it's not dumb. Thats how the sport has always been played. They have changed the rules slightly for safety reasons. It is the nature of the sport though. It is a sport YOU(the person) choose to play and therefore should be aware of the risks.

While it may not seem like it, Rugby is a very disciplined sport.
And it seems like you can't get that about football. The exact same.

Quote:
Look at this way, if American Football was as bad ass as many Americans think, it would be popular all over the world. Fact is, it's not.
Not trying to be rude in saying that, it's just the truth.
Most American's DON'T care. This is our game and that's the way it should be. The very thought of an NFL team in London gets more negativity here than it does in the U.K. and they don't give a damn about football.

And the OP who started this thread isn't even from this country. We're not exactly begging the rest of the world to watch the NFL... except Roger Goodell, but he's a money hungry businessman, so what do you expect?
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Old 08-15-2013, 08:35 AM
 
Location: Tejas
7,599 posts, read 18,380,771 times
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Well at least people are making the toughness comparison of American Football vs Rugby and not the usual American Football vs Football argument that always springs up!!

The NFL players have the added mental aspect of being padded up so its all about hitting somebody and considered a tackle. In Rugby they do get smashed pretty hard but its about the tackle, you have to hold on and bring the guy to the ground. Maybe it gets worse as they get older I dunno, ive seen highschool kids tackle by grabbing more than in college ball and the little NFL I have watched.

I dont think many NFL players would have the stamina for Rugby either, especially not that aforementioned 320lb fat guy who usually runs for a max of 8 seconds before he gets a 3 to 5 minute break to recoup and tactics n all that bollox.

All the sports have their positives and negatives. American Football's biggest negatives are the lack of play and long periods of nothing happening and TV breaks. Its hard for the avg person to watch if they are used to free flowing sports. Also the tough guy mentality of half of these morons in the NFL is hard to take too. I mean they are wearing tights and thick padding and big helmets and are touted as the toughest guys in sport. Then you look at rugby players who are the exact opposite in gear they wear.
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Old 08-15-2013, 10:01 AM
 
Location: Lewes, Delaware
3,490 posts, read 3,783,134 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jean71 View Post
Look at this way, if American Football was as bad ass as many Americans think, it would be popular all over the world. Fact is, it's not.
Not trying to be rude in saying that, it's just the truth. Sure it has a following overseas, one of my good friends in NZ enjoys it a lot, and is quite popular 8n a few countries. But it will never catch on like here. It's even losing steam here.
And Rugby is one of the fastest growing sports in the U.S.
So was soccer, Rugby will never ever eclipse Football in this country. I don't know what the big deal is, its Americas game, our game and it doesn't need to conform to any other country. Look at Soccer, soccer will never dominate here and it drives the world crazy, why, who cares.

I love Rugby and wish it would be more popular here, I wish more kids played Rugby than Soccer here, same for football.

As for scrums, I won't say you don't what you're talking about because you seem to, but don't close your mind to football, they have 300lb guys that can cover 40 yards in 5 seconds, they also have the strength and size advantage. Take a guy like Julius Peppers, he's about 6'7" 290 lbs with 7% body fat, he would be an anomaly in Rugby, football has guys like him on every team and if they trained for Rugby, the endurance and stamina stuff would not be an issue.
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Old 08-15-2013, 03:06 PM
 
3,040 posts, read 2,573,654 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by James420 View Post
So was soccer, Rugby will never ever eclipse Football in this country. I don't know what the big deal is, its Americas game, our game and it doesn't need to conform to any other country. Look at Soccer, soccer will never dominate here and it drives the world crazy, why, who cares.

I love Rugby and wish it would be more popular here, I wish more kids played Rugby than Soccer here, same for football.

As for scrums, I won't say you don't what you're talking about because you seem to, but don't close your mind to football, they have 300lb guys that can cover 40 yards in 5 seconds, they also have the strength and size advantage. Take a guy like Julius Peppers, he's about 6'7" 290 lbs with 7% body fat, he would be an anomaly in Rugby, football has guys like him on every team and if they trained for Rugby, the endurance and stamina stuff would not be an issue.
Agreed.
I think to be fair though, 6'7 @ 290lbs and 7% body fat, is a anamaly in any sport regardless.
Rugby has a lot of big players too. Jonah Lomu was huge. The Tongan and Somoan sides have a lot of big players.
They just don't look as big without the padding.

I think it would be safe to say that both sports have players of comparable size.
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Old 08-15-2013, 07:24 PM
 
Location: Fairfax, Va
245 posts, read 297,839 times
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Another reason baseball and American football are not famous is both are so commercialized. The way the MLB is run puts the players above the rules, look how the players union want to break the doping rules just for being famous. The NFL is famous with players acting bad outside the field and not being a good example even the NFL is nicknamed "National Felon League" from all the crimes done by NFL players or ex- NFL players. No one wants to follow a sport where players act like thugs or based around steroids and tobacco chew
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Old 08-15-2013, 08:48 PM
 
3,040 posts, read 2,573,654 times
Reputation: 665
Quote:
Originally Posted by mos1992 View Post
Another reason baseball and American football are not famous is both are so commercialized. The way the MLB is run puts the players above the rules, look how the players union want to break the doping rules just for being famous. The NFL is famous with players acting bad outside the field and not being a good example even the NFL is nicknamed "National Felon League" from all the crimes done by NFL players or ex- NFL players. No one wants to follow a sport where players act like thugs or based around steroids and tobacco chew
Agreed.
American sports is very commercialized.
I know money and politics are present in all sports, it's just very different in American sports.
Especially the buying and selling of players and everything based on contract. The selection of players from colleges. Kids going to certain colleges just to play or getting scholarships to go somewhere...
Of course thats more at NFL and NBA though. Not so much MLB.

But that kind of stuff never happens in Rugby. There is no "buying" kids straight out of school. If you want to make it, it is entirely up to YOU. If you want to play for a specific team(before pro level), you got to move your ass there and hope you're good enough to be selected.
Even at Pro level. The switching of players is rare.

It happens more in Soccer but not even that is anything like NFL.
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Old 08-15-2013, 09:38 PM
JJG
 
Location: Fort Worth
13,612 posts, read 22,841,032 times
Reputation: 7643
Quote:
Originally Posted by mos1992 View Post
Another reason baseball and American football are not famous is both are so commercialized. The way the MLB is run puts the players above the rules, look how the players union want to break the doping rules just for being famous. The NFL is famous with players acting bad outside the field and not being a good example even the NFL is nicknamed "National Felon League" from all the crimes done by NFL players or ex- NFL players. No one wants to follow a sport where players act like thugs or based around steroids and tobacco chew
Right... because the NFL is the ONLY sports league in the world with idiots and criminals.
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