| inconspicuous |
| quote: | Originally posted by verndogs
having watched 2 six nations rubgy matches while i was over in ireland and england...I can safely say this:
Players go for much harder hits in american football as opposed to rugby. American football is also much more complicated and strategic than rugby.
Rugby has more flow to the game. It doesn't have plays that last 3 seconds and minute long gaps between plays which makes american football annoying. It also has more room for improvisation than american football.
Sure euros can say *this sport* (rugby/gaelic football etc) is like american football, but without the padding. But realistically, there are a lot more subtle differences than you think.
For me, even though I had fun watching France beat out Ireland for the title this year on a last second score at the Manchester airport, I prefer american football over rugby. I love the strategic part of american football. |
I can't say which one is actually more painful, because I've never played either competitively, but it's not as if one is clearly more 'manly' than the other. American football has MUCH harder hits, for two reasons: the players have pads, so they just attack each other with reckless abandon, and football players are ALL absolute physical freaks of nature. Almost nobody in the game is under 6 feet tall or 200 lbs., except for the running backs, who get the worst beatings of anyone. Most of the time they get tackled, it's by guys who are over 300 lbs, but can still run sub-5 second 40-yard dashes, and benchpress 200 lbs 30 or 40 times, or, if they're lucky, by linebackers who are more like 250 lbs of pure muscle, and even faster than the big linemen.
I'd imagine that football is more painful, just over time, with the accumulation of hits, but there's probably more risk of bizarre, horrific injuries in rugby, due to the lack of protection. You don't see a lot of guys snapping legs or arms in football, but if you've ever seen a former running back or lineman walk, it's almost scary--45-year-olds who look like World War II veterans.
American football is geared at a more ADD audience, where you have intense action and more of it all at once than in any other sport, then a break. The breaks are necessary, because every player is at his absolute limits of exertion on every play. There's no jogging. There's not 1 play in the game where somebody gets to take a break (unless you're Randy Moss), unless he's on the sidelines. That's why there's a 30-second or so gap between 10-15 second plays.
Once you get used to watching football, most other sports don't seem as interesting, just because they lack that high level of action on a consistent basis. That said, I still love watching just about anything, but football is definitely a favorite. The only major gripe I have with it, as a spectator, is the tv timeouts. It's much the same as basketball, where everybody just stands around for 2-3 minutes every so often, while they air commercials. |
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