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American Football vs. Rugby

what gets me is the american football movies. its always a gruelling fitness regime etc etc... but you watch a game, and most of the team dont run at all. one guy sprints 20 yards, falls over, then takes a 5 minute break. and if u lose the ball u get rewarded with a spell on the bench??!
 
Rugby is a much much much better sport than American football, actually there is no comparison imo :)
 
I'll say first of all that I've been brought up on rugby since I was in nappies, so I come with a large bias. Obviously I prefer rugby.

For me, rugby is the team version of mixed martial arts. There's a huge variety of skills - people of any size can play, you have strong players, good jumpers, good tacklers, creative ones, footballing ones, fast ones and so on... I struggle to think of a team sport played on a worldwide scale (ie not American Football, Aussie rules etc.) that has such a diversity.

However, I respect American Football. There's always the argument that they're pussys for wearing armour; however some of them weigh 300lbs and there aren't so many limits on what's a fair tackle. In it's own right, american football is a great sport. It doesn't need to be compared to rugby. However, it's not the sport for me because I've watched games and I get bored after a quarter, because there are so many stoppages and commercials. I've only ever played touch nfl on the beach so I don't know about a proper game but I'd imagine I'd get pretty frustrated having to sit out half the match on the sideline...

Anyway, that's my view. American Football's a good sport, I just think rugby's better.
 
I prefer Rugby because its much more "real"... The tackles they are doing, without all that protection like there is in American Football. Also im from Norway, but also im french, and in France Rugby is very big:p
 
Sometimes i have the chance to watch American Football (but why are they calling it Football?!).

I think it's a quite good game, but the big big flaw is that it has too many interruptions: 20 seconds of people running around clad in oversized protection and then 5 minutes of boredom. 20 seconds nad then other 10 minuts of nothing. I know it can be useful to get a beer from the fridge or go to the toilet, but man watching a whole game is plain boring.

It's a perfect "highlight sport", you can enjoy it fully just by watching the highlights and skipping a ton of boring moments.
 
hi all,

this is my first post but also an argument that i have had thousands of times.

i've been playing american football in the uk for 9 years now and rugby regulary for 5years.
i love playing both sports but i dont think they can be compared to each other fairly.

at football i am an offensive lineman (i'm 6ft and 19and a half stone) and a lot of what i do is probably 30% strength and 70% technique.
i can assure you all that all though a game of football is stop start there is no way you could play without being fit. you are absolutely flat out every play.

the hardest thing i found when i started to play rugby is the tackling, at football you are taught to hit high and put your head on the ball and grab cloth. at rugby it is alot lower which i found hard to change and still find myself hitting high on occasion. in the nfl players are so fast and strong that tey do not use proper technique as they hit so hard.

someone metioned the athletes in the nfl and the reason they have these is the whole school system.
a 14year old boy may start to play football at high school and starts to lift weights maybe 3 times a week. when he leaves college at 25 he has basically been training full time for 11 years. thats why you find guys that are 340lbs and can run 5.2 40yard dashes.

rugby is getting bigger in the states now with colleges giving scholarships and rugby usa targetting ex football players.
there is something like 20,000 football players in college every year and only 1000 will ever play pro, they are now targetting the other 19000 to try and persuade them to convert.
 
Plenty of converts from football to rugby in Canada especially on the national team. Kevin Tkachuk comes to mind as someone who made a seemless transition to rugby from gridiron. He is an international prop for Canada and also plays professionally for the Glasgow Warriors in the Magners league. He played football for the University of Regina in Canada and was also a wrestler their... if anyone doesn't mknow anything about Canadian Football Regina is one of the powerhouses in Canadian Football and regularly produces players that go on to play in the CFL and has a few NFL alumni to boot. Tkachuk took up rugby when he was 20 and picked up the game very rapidly.



Justin-Mensah Coker is another player on the Canadian team who comes to mind... he was a basketball and football player but chose in his 20s to pursue rugby and he now plays professionally for Albi in the Top 14.



As for my opinion on which sport is better.... I enjoy both sports immensely what we must realize is how they are both fundamentally different in what they are trying to achieve... rugby is all about watching the spectacle that is the contest of maintaining possession of the ball where tries are grinded out with less emphasis on the big play itself but the buildup that occurs to achieve that big play. Football; on the otherhand, is all about what you can do with the ball when you have it and the grindout to secure possession is not so important... football is all about that one big play.



As far as players converting its so hard because both sports require different skill sets... we havbe seen wit professionals emerging from both the US and Canada US: Billups, Lyle, Gross, MacDonald Canada: Tkachuk, Mensah-Coker, Franklin, Cudmore that it is possible to convert especially in the forwards... infact a lot of football players from North America make very good forwards in rugby... the trouble arises when u try to put NFL players in backline positions because most just do not have the knowledge or instinct to play in those positions... This; however, arises as well when you try and put backs from rugby into a game of gridiron football...they do not have the size or the knowledge of the game to make it to the big time.



You see this problem with our national teams... the Canadian National team has a very good forward pack and we are known to play a hardnosed in your face game of rugby and our forwards can compete with almost any pack in the world.... where we are found lacking is our backlines as our players are frequently cut to pieces by more experienced and knowledgeable players... it happened in the World Cup against Wales and Fiji, it happened when we lost to the All Blacks in Waikato.... our backline just does not possess the ability that these players who have grown up with the game their whole lives do... The same would happen if we threw a bunch of New Zealanders against a top quality Gridiron (I am calling it this to satisfy all you fellas who hate the word football) side from Canada or the United States.



As to which sport is better offcourse we will all say rugby I will even say rugby as I am more of a fan of the nonstop action but gridiron is very exciting as well. There is nothing more exhilirating then sitting in a stadium with 80,000 fans passionately behind their team and watching those big plays unfold between your eyes.



Too add to this Ice Hockey is superior to both sports IMHO Lol
 
hi all,

this is my first post but also an argument that i have had thousands of times.

i've been playing american football in the uk for 9 years now and rugby regulary for 5years.
i love playing both sports but i dont think they can be compared to each other fairly.

at football i am an offensive lineman (i'm 6ft and 19and a half stone) and a lot of what i do is probably 30% strength and 70% technique.
i can assure you all that all though a game of football is stop start there is no way you could play without being fit. you are absolutely flat out every play.

the hardest thing i found when i started to play rugby is the tackling, at football you are taught to hit high and put your head on the ball and grab cloth. at rugby it is alot lower which i found hard to change and still find myself hitting high on occasion. in the nfl players are so fast and strong that tey do not use proper technique as they hit so hard.

someone metioned the athletes in the nfl and the reason they have these is the whole school system.
a 14year old boy may start to play football at high school and starts to lift weights maybe 3 times a week. when he leaves college at 25 he has basically been training full time for 11 years. thats why you find guys that are 340lbs and can run 5.2 40yard dashes.

rugby is getting bigger in the states now with colleges giving scholarships and rugby usa targetting ex football players.
there is something like 20,000 football players in college every year and only 1000 will ever play pro, they are now targetting the other 19000 to try and persuade them to convert.
[/b]
Click to expand...
Offensive Linemen are all Gay.
I played Defensive Line.
Ha.

Why do they even play Gridiron in the UK...I've never understood that. It's such an expensive sport from the get go.
 
I preder rugby, which i consider to be far more dinamic and fun to watch...
American Football seems to be more like a sort of "chess" game..and many players don't even touch the ball... but despite this i really enjoy the video games
 
i played american football for awhile this year having played rugby since i was 5 and played rugby league for 4 years. I played rugby and rugby league in the states and canada and found that those playing rugby love it over there but still like football. over here in ireland i found most of the guys playing football, first of all weren't athletic enough to play rugby, ie big fat linemen, little quick wideouts with no beef and very unimpressive linebackers, we'd a couple of good tailbacks but that was it.
they're both amazing sports but i found that i couldnt get into football here, i was tight end and felt i was about the right size for it, 6'4 and 15stone and was fairly good at it for the level we played at, but the thing i love about football is the spectacle both in the NFL, arena league or college and that is so far removed from the crappy fields, poorly kitted, badly uniformed teams that we had in ireland that i couldnt take it seriously.
the coach would be firing us up for a game and screaming at us and i'd just be there thinking in the back of my mind, " a lads calm down, its not rugby"
in conclusiion, most of those taking football very seriously here are lads who couldnt cut it in rugby or have "issues" with rugby, ie they're all posh lads playing rugby. but top level football versus top level rugby is poretty even, i'd love to see some guys cross over, like a big running back playing inside centre or sebastian chabal playing tight end
 
Aye and the same goes for over here a lot of people who can't go any further switch to rugby for its club and social aspects and as a way to keep fit. I played ice hockey for 12 years started playing rep hockey at the age of 8 and began playing in the provincial AAA circuit at the age of 12... played all the way upto Midget AAA for the regional team but alas all good dreams must end and I am not good enough to make the jump to junior A etc... I started playing rugby at 16 for my high school as a way to keep in shape for the hockey season and to toughen me up a bit... I found once my hockey career ended I started playign rugby more and more and quite enjoy it... I use it as a way to stay in shape as I am in the army as well I think it develops good decision making a leadership skills.
 
All, I'm going to say is that I can't believe this thread is still going on...have we not beat the comparisons of the two sports to death by this point? It honestly feels like it's the same thing being said, reiterated and emphasized over and over again...
My vote: Kill This Thread. :wall:
 
But when you say NFL kickers make Wilkinsons leg seem weak and inaccurrate, do you mean goal kicking or general punting? Because i've only seen NFL kickers kick Field goals from practically only in front of the posts. Where as Wilkinson (and other rugby goal kickers), kick from all around the field, left, right of the posts.

Or are you refering to some other inaccuracy?
[/b]
Click to expand...

Well, I guess I mean NFL kickers are more consistent. Good NFL kickers rarely miss a field goal under 40 yards in an entire season, and will make 70%+ of their attempts over that distance. Also, they don't kick off a tee and the ball is only in place for a fraction of a second before they kick it. The angles aren't as extreme, but the expectations are higher. For example, the AFC's Pro Bowl kicker in 2007, Rob Bironas, made 89.7% of his attempts (35/39), not counting extra points, and he made 100% of those (28/28). For specific distances, he was 10/12 from between 20-29 yards, 12/12 from 30-39 yards, 9/10 from 40-49 yards, and 4/5 from 50+ yards, with a long of 56 yards. He was 28/28 on extra points, which are 20 yards in distance.

NFL posts are very slightly wider (18.5' vs 18.4') and very slightly taller (10' vs. 9.8') than rugby goalposts.

As for punting, the NFL punters clearly kick farther and generally more accurately, but the circumstances are much different - NFL punters don't have to kick on the run, and they have a wall of blockers protecting them from the other team.
 
<div class='quotemain'>
But when you say NFL kickers make Wilkinsons leg seem weak and inaccurrate, do you mean goal kicking or general punting? Because i've only seen NFL kickers kick Field goals from practically only in front of the posts. Where as Wilkinson (and other rugby goal kickers), kick from all around the field, left, right of the posts.

Or are you refering to some other inaccuracy?
[/b]
Click to expand...

Well, I guess I mean NFL kickers are more consistent. Good NFL kickers rarely miss a field goal under 40 yards in an entire season, and will make 70%+ of their attempts over that distance. Also, they don't kick off a tee and the ball is only in place for a fraction of a second before they kick it. The angles aren't as extreme, but the expectations are higher. For example, the AFC's Pro Bowl kicker in 2007, Rob Bironas, made 89.7% of his attempts (35/39), not counting extra points, and he made 100% of those (28/28). For specific distances, he was 10/12 from between 20-29 yards, 12/12 from 30-39 yards, 9/10 from 40-49 yards, and 4/5 from 50+ yards, with a long of 56 yards. He was 28/28 on extra points, which are 20 yards in distance.

NFL posts are very slightly wider (18.5' vs 18.4') and very slightly taller (10' vs. 9.8') than rugby goalposts.

As for punting, the NFL punters clearly kick farther and generally more accurately, but the circumstances are much different - NFL punters don't have to kick on the run, and they have a wall of blockers protecting them from the other team. [/b][/quote]
Damn it! :wall:
An NFL kicker never faces the extreme angled kicks a rugby kicker does. Plus they don't actually play in the game. An American Kicker comes on the field only for those 4 kicks a game. They typically are sort of the brunt of a lot of jokes because of this. They usually can't tackle worth crap either, so God forbid they f___ up and have to attempt to correct their mistake...after that ball leaves his foot, he's a useless git. Even Adam Sandler wrote a song about it "The Lonesome Kicker."
<object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/WOcwJH5jWng&hl=en"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/WOcwJH5jWng&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>
Don't ever, ever compare the two...EVER. :%#%#:
 
Plenty of converts from football to rugby in Canada especially on the national team. Kevin Tkachuk comes to mind as someone who made a seemless transition to rugby from gridiron. He is an international prop for Canada and also plays professionally for the Glasgow Warriors in the Magners league. He played football for the University of Regina in Canada and was also a wrestler their... if anyone doesn't mknow anything about Canadian Football Regina is one of the powerhouses in Canadian Football and regularly produces players that go on to play in the CFL and has a few NFL alumni to boot. Tkachuk took up rugby when he was 20 and picked up the game very rapidly.



Justin-Mensah Coker is another player on the Canadian team who comes to mind... he was a basketball and football player but chose in his 20s to pursue rugby and he now plays professionally for Albi in the Top 14.



As for my opinion on which sport is better.... I enjoy both sports immensely what we must realize is how they are both fundamentally different in what they are trying to achieve... rugby is all about watching the spectacle that is the contest of maintaining possession of the ball where tries are grinded out with less emphasis on the big play itself but the buildup that occurs to achieve that big play. Football; on the otherhand, is all about what you can do with the ball when you have it and the grindout to secure possession is not so important... football is all about that one big play.



As far as players converting its so hard because both sports require different skill sets... we havbe seen wit professionals emerging from both the US and Canada US: Billups, Lyle, Gross, MacDonald Canada: Tkachuk, Mensah-Coker, Franklin, Cudmore that it is possible to convert especially in the forwards... infact a lot of football players from North America make very good forwards in rugby... the trouble arises when u try to put NFL players in backline positions because most just do not have the knowledge or instinct to play in those positions... This; however, arises as well when you try and put backs from rugby into a game of gridiron football...they do not have the size or the knowledge of the game to make it to the big time.



You see this problem with our national teams... the Canadian National team has a very good forward pack and we are known to play a hardnosed in your face game of rugby and our forwards can compete with almost any pack in the world.... where we are found lacking is our backlines as our players are frequently cut to pieces by more experienced and knowledgeable players... it happened in the World Cup against Wales and Fiji, it happened when we lost to the All Blacks in Waikato.... our backline just does not possess the ability that these players who have grown up with the game their whole lives do... The same would happen if we threw a bunch of New Zealanders against a top quality Gridiron (I am calling it this to satisfy all you fellas who hate the word football) side from Canada or the United States.



As to which sport is better offcourse we will all say rugby I will even say rugby as I am more of a fan of the nonstop action but gridiron is very exciting as well. There is nothing more exhilirating then sitting in a stadium with 80,000 fans passionately behind their team and watching those big plays unfold between your eyes.



Too add to this Ice Hockey is superior to both sports IMHO Lol
[/b]
Click to expand...

Hmmm, i think the Canadian forward pack is good but would get a real pumping from behind if the All Blacks were actually fired up for that game

Also, a friend of mine recently travelled to the US to watch a Genesis Concert and also watched an NFL game at giants stadium. He said that the game was good when they were actually playing but that the monotony, the repetitive nature of the sport and especially the breaks for advertisements were pathetic.
 
O'Rothlain i feel your pain about this thread going on and on and on bro sooooo here is my
2 cents worth :bleh!: i can't say i have ever sat down and watched a gridiron game so i can't
say if it is better or not. 1 thing i have heard is that the natinol guard in the states have signed
up to rugby to act as a fittnes programe and alot of ex marines are playing now becouse they
think rugby is hardcore.and this is from a ex marine i know here.
 
I love both sports although rugby is still my number 1. It's a bit pointless comparing the two because, as mentioned before, the disciplines in both are so much different. The whole point about American Football is that it is an "explosive" game whilst rugby is very much more sustained and attritional.

There's a great article on Dhani Jones, outside linebacker for the Cincinnati Bengals who came to the UK to pick up and play rugby in 3 weeks. He's ~6'2 and 17st. And fast. And was famously arrested because he wouldn't stop dancing. Anyways, he played 10 minutes for Blackheath against Lauceston at flanker (article: http://www.scrum.com/39_50604.php) and he does make a good point that he was absolutely knackered in that time because the nature of the sport is so different.

Anyways, I'm hoping to make the Oxford Cavaliers as a slot receiver or a safety next year (although I'm still going to play rugby ;) ).
 
I have to admit: I'm a big american football fan, but also love rugby.
I know football much more cause I started to watch it many years before I "fell in love" with rugby.

Well, they are two sports which have been compared each other but, a part from the contacts nature and the similarity between the touchdown and the try, are really different.

Football is more tactical and extremely coached, rugby is much more fascinating for its background culture and tradition.

But for the violence contest :wacko: I pick ice-hockey! The NHL could be a wild fight if the players, and the refs, just decide to... :wall:
 
I personaly like rugby, because the football coach at my school is not very nice to rugby players


Cody
 

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