American football ended up requiring a lot of protective equipment because players don't tackle the rugby way. And then there are many specific rules like eligible receivers (i.e. which players on the offensive team are only allowed to catch the quarterback's forward pass). Rugby is more widespread simply because it's easier to be learned and doesn't require memorizing a playbook specifying running vs passing plays.
Also, on the audience side, the intermittent nature of American football (i.e. teams having to line up at the line of scrimmage everytime after the ball is down) combined with the absurd amount of commercials just wouldn't appeal to European viewers. At least with soccer, despite the difficulty of scoring a goal, its continuous play clock keeps audiences engaged in and not zoning out everytime there's a timeout.
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Guy on bottom pic is cool, he should start a forum or something.
I wonder if rugby athletes have the same need for such treatment because of the constant collision and tackling. Ironically the existence of padding equipment might have made injuries worse because players think they can take more risks wearing a helmet and body armor.
It's not that fútbol players aren't fit, but rather the lack of incentive on the part of US players to choose the sport when there are 4 other sports in which they can use their arms and hands. Also if I'm just building a career around continuous running, I would choose something like track-and-field or cross-country or triathlon.
other endurance sports don't pay $35 million contracts in the way European football does.
football players are very small and very fit with great speed endurance, leg power and core stability.
No need for arm or shoulder strength.
footballers are probably fitter than nearly every other team sport there is.
they run for miles at an almost sprint, get clattered in the same spot every tackle, never complain about fatigue, and they play 90 minute almost continuous running league matches every 3 or 4 days. play a looong season, they have a basically 4 week off season. Compare that to American football.. season starts in early autumn, for most its over by December/January.
I still prefer rugby though.
Alot of Samoans who grew up playing rugby go into the NFL. they say the hits are brutal but there's no real endurance component .
It's so drawn out, long wait periods and then little bits of stop start action.
NFL players, the Samoan Gridiron players say, couldn't handle producing big hits alongside the non stop running of rugby.
There was actually a Gladiators episode in the 90s putting a very impressive looking NFL player up against a rugby player.
The NFL guy just melted halfway through.
it was the triumph of endurance over the short sprints of the NFL.
of all the team sports NHL players are the only ones who could transfer across to rugby straight away as they have the endurance together with the ability to handle the hits.
with respect to Mr It is my time's arguments NFL players wouldn't last the game, for all the rooting tooting cowboy stories about them and the high production values montage-training videos, NFL players have never had to play through lactic acid and exhaustion in any meaningful game, let alone desperately sprinting non stop for 80 minutes solid. the tackle situation in rugby league means the defending team has to retreat backwards fast 10 yards and then immediately sprint forward to make a tackle with every play the ball, which is around every 5 to 10 seconds, non stop, in a very fast game.
People need to try that before dismissing it. Rugby League players are incredibly fit.
football players couldn't handle rugby because, whilst they can handle the running.. they've actually got the most stamina, they couldn't handle getting stamped on and getting hit in the ribs nonstop. NHL players could.
The big lugs in the NBA have got the lungs (despite only playing 40-something minute game over 2 and a half hours lol
lol
that's actually embarrassing) .... but whilst they're big and strong the minute they get part of their ear bitten off (happens) or, more normally, a thumb buried in their eyeball and have to get a dozen stitches in the white of their eyeball (happens) or see their team mate get carried off with massive blood loss or see players get knocked completely out and then revived and told to get on with it or get their scalp bitten into, or their head stamped on, or just find themselves repeatedly headbutted, clothes lined, elbowed and punched with no intervention, no sympathy from the referee and no late night news show on 9 about it later either, I seriously doubt their ability to adapt immediately.
Doubt they'd be able to handle it and go back for more.
For all of leBron James or Denis Rodmans showboating, give me a Brodie Retallick or a Bakkes Botha or a Marmuka Gorgodze (Christian from Georgia) any day.. going off for stitches after 16 boots stamping on them, coming back on, getting punched immediately and needing14 stitches above their eye, coming back on, getting punched again so that the stitches unzipper and going back off to get 10 stitches redone, coming back on and getting punched again in the same spot etc will put a bit of a dent in any GOAT's "freakish athletic abilities" in quick time.
Rugby players do a lot of wrestling training as part of their training.
Probably boxers, wrestlers and MMA fighters would be the best suited to transitioning to rugby with the contact and endurance requirements, although those aren't team sports.
Interestingly US Marines Corps officers have gone on record saying that Rugby is the best sport for their soldiers at military academies or in training not only because it harnesses team spirit, strategy, unit skills, but its the best team sport for simulating battle conditions: legs full of lactic acid, lungs burning, constant communication, crouching and running low, the physical equivalent of lugging ammunition boxes up muddy hills.
Certainly better preparation than wearing girly plastic face masks in the NBA and yelling at the referee for no good reason or alternately sitting on a bench and stopping it from suddenly flying up in the air in the NFL.
We know.. we know.. Americans are the best best thing ever - black people are just soooo amazing.. that's what American Carlin Isles was telling everyone when he transitioned to 15 a side rugby before he faced boggy pitches, his hamstrings raked and stamped on every game, morst crucially No Time-Outs and before he then sank completely without a trace.
If..
If..
If..
If the Americans had spent generations upon generations investing all that money, planning and coaching into sports that people around the world actually watch like Football or Rugby.
But they haven't.. and so they remain trapped in sports that no one else cares about and unable to make the transition to more popular sports where they learn fine touch control using their feet (football) or all action full-contact sports where they do more non stop tackling or running in one half than they would do in half a season..
If my uncle was a woman he'd be my Aunt.
They haven't, so they sit outside the party telling everyone "if I was on there I would be the best best thing ever.. we don't care about your sports ha ha.. have I told you how amazing we are? We're amazing. have I told you The Good News about black people? They're even more amazing. they're better, just better..than anyone else.. If we were inside we would win everything.. Everything. hello? hello? where'd everybody go?"
NHL players, we'd take them.
And Aussie Rules players, they're probably the fittest all round athletes in any team sports come to think of it.
From time to time they send their kickers over to kick in the NFL because they're just better at it.
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