Somewhat off on a tangent, but I fancy a rant since the topic of rugby vs American Football has come up! I'd followed the NFL keenly for decades but have slowly drifted away from it since around 2010 due to rule changes that I think have fundamentally changed the sport for the worse - compared to rule changes in rugby that I think have enhanced the game at all levels. Basically I love top athletes, running with the ball, taking contact and a general physicality. The NFL of the 80s and 90s was perfect but last season was the first where I've not watched any of it barring the playoff highlights and Superbowl.
In the NFL this century we've seen:
- different rules introduced for how you can hit a quarterback compared to all other players (imagine if you could only tackle a standoff in certain ways but everyone else was fair game). Resulting in increasingly geriatric QBs avoiding injuries that their teammates get and having success into their late 30s (and possibly beyond). There is also the rise of QBs who can't throw well, but can run fast, to take advantage of the special treatment they get from referees when it comes to taking contact.
- rules to prevent contact near scrimmage between wide receivers and secondary (to encourage low risk, short passing and 60+ yard after carry broken plays rather than methodically built drives of 10+ plays involving a tactical back and forth between coaches)
- rules to prevent even incidental contact between receivers and secondary downfield, making man to man coverage almost impossible for all but the most elite athletes. Receivers have now become speedy little punt return types who can barely run a route, TEs have become slimmer basketball types who can't run block and the old physical specimen of a good wide receiver (like a Ward, Toomer or Carter) have gone the way of the Dodo because they aren't fast enough (they can only run routes and catch the ball under extreme defensive attention - something that isn't required now).
- an emphasis on the passing game (now that it is so easy) that has resulted in many of the top athletes in the sport (running backs) reduced to mere bit-part players, who can regulary get as few as 10 or 15 carries in a 3hr+ sporting event while we can get 100+ combined passing attempts in a game. Historically it used to be nearer 50/50 between pass and run. If you are a running back, your number one priority now is almost to be able to "pass block" and protect the quarterback, rather than help win the game for your team with your outstanding ability. I'd argue Barry Sanders would have been cut in the modern league, because he wasn't a decent pass blocker.
In rugby during the same period we've seen what I consider as two key changes:
- you can't gain territory kicking into touch from outside your 22 (which encourages the ball to stay in play and counter attacking running play by fullbacks and wings - teams that can do this well are becoming more successful than teams that rely on set pieces)
- turning a blind eye to crooked scrum feeds (which makes a team on the backfoot at scrummage has more chance of surviving a scrum with their feed without conceding a penalty. This means the value of a huge slow forward pack has been reduced compared to faster, lighter, pass orientated forwards)
I am very, very sore about what they've done to the NFL, but delighted that rugby has stepped up to become more entertaining and run orientated, including at non-elite levels like US Pro Rugby and the Romanian Superliga. I'd never have dreamt to tuning in to such contests in the past when the sport was a lot more "stop-start" and stodgy. But I saw far more physical running and carrying the ball into contact with the San Francisco Rush this year than I'd seen with the 49ers a few years back at the peak of the amazing Frank Gore (who was left to get an ever reducing number of touches). Its part of the reason I'm probably the only person on the planet who thinks the name SF Rush is really good (given the use of the term in the NFL for the running game). If you want to see rushing plays, there is only one sport in town; and it ain't American Football.
