RUGBY AMERICAN FOOTBALL

[Lon]

Although I enjoy Rugby, I prefer watching American Football. I get kidded by my Kiwi friends about the differences. I mentioned that I thought that Rugby was like playing CHECKERS an American Football was like playing CHESS. This kinda ticked them off. Though the games may appear similar, there are many huge differences between them. One is not better than the other, they are just different.

[Lon]

ArnoldLayne wrote: Lon , I'm very dissapointed . A Kiwi with a preference to American Football, please.



No contest. How much action do you get in total during a whole match...10 minutes. Commercials 40 mins.



And you from the land of the mighty All Blacks.Shame on you
Sorry Arnold, I'm a Yank, not a Kiwi.



Those commercials are what pays the Big Bucks $$$$ to the players.

[john8pies]

I really don`t want to put the cat amongst the pigeons here but talking about `which game is the best` merits a look at the origins of the games? I believe RUGBY (and presumably spin-offs like American football, etc, therefore?) started because during a game of (English) soccer at Rugby School, one of the players who was not skilful enough to kick /dribble /pass the ball properly with his feet (the origins of the game dating back to 13th century street urchins), made the outrageous decision to pick it up and hold it with his hands!!! Or is this just folklore?!

[Bothwell]

Football or soccer if you prefer is supposedly our national game, being from a part of the country that is rugby mad I never even got to play it until I was about 16 or so. I have to say that my fiorst love is still rugby,proffessional soccer players drive me nuts, every day our papers have some story about them fighting, abusing women crashing cars whilst drunk etc. Things are not much better on the pitch, cheating, spitting, fighting with each other and worst of all theatrically diving all over the place when merely brushed by an opponent.

Yes rugby has it's moments and punch ups regularly occur but they deal with it themselves, most times players are actually ordered to leave the field by the referee for blood injuries rather than have 10 physio's escort the crybaby soccer player to the dressing room.

While we are on the subject I have a question that has puzzled me for years, why are soccer crowds so badly behaved when rugby ones are not. I can assure you that when Gloucester play Bath at rugby the rivalry is as intense as any soccer game, in addition most of the fans will be well lubricated with alcohol, a lethal combination at a soccer game. However both sets of supporters will sit through the match side by side, I the soccer fans were not segregated there would be a full scale riot, why is this?

[john8pies]

I totally agree with you about the crowds and the players, and I expect most genuine decent soccer fans are as appalled as I am by the antics of the morons who latch on to a team then use the soccer as an excuse for vandalism and violence. I think that rugby fans set a wonderful sporting example by drinking and seating together at matches. I too am disgusted by the antics of the overpaid prima donnas on the field itself. Money has ruined the game. However, like an addiction, I suppose, I stil continue to watch and enjoy games, but refuse to pay the outrageous admission fees to do so at the ground itself.

[Jives]

ArnoldLayne wrote: .As a football fanatic it depresses me to see the terraces run by the d***kheads of society, but hey look at their role models rolling about like extras from "Platoon"


ROFL. Man, now THAT'S good comedy! And that's a good point, there's never been a riot at an American football game and I suspect there never will be one. I'm not at all sure why I have this idea, though.

[Jives]

ArnoldLayne wrote: I'm sure your hooligan element just prefers a different venue than a sports arena


Of COURSE! (jives slaps his forehead) (ouch, I did that too hard) they're all at the Rap Concerts! :wah:

[Philadelphia Eagle]

Ther are two main reasons,it seems to me, why we don't get the awful hooliganism of soccer at our football games.

One is the much greater distances in America between clubs which tends to dissuade visiting fans from attending games whereas in England the soccer clubs are much closer geographically to each other and it is much easier for 'away' fans to attend. I ham assuming that most of the trouble is between the two rival sets of spectators. (This doesn't, I realize, explain why rugby games in England between two close neighbors don't create the sort of mayhem that soccer games do).

Perhaps the second reason does. In America sport at all levels is traditionally a family affair and everyone in the family will go along to the game - even NFL fixtures. My own local NFL side - the Philadelphia Eagles - have never, to my knowledge, had crowd trouble at any of their games - home or away.

Maybe Rugby in England is more family oriented than soccer. If so, that may be part of the answer.

[K.Snyder]

I've never had a chance to watch Rugby...When I was a kid after we had football practice, there would be an adult Rugby team begin their practice. I never actually stayed and watched them practice because my parents had to work and when we finished it was getting close for all of us to go to bed because we had school the next day.

I'm sure if I watched Rugby enough or had the option to I would grow to like it. I'm an athlete and I enjoy all sports as long as it's challenging and athletic.(Although I like playing golf - as much as golf demands skilled talent it isn't athletic)

As for the differences in one having pads and one not, I generally think of that as being more intelligible...I like getting rough, but I like to keep my teeth and the shape of my skull...I have another side to me that I enjoy probably more so...