Football 0 Rugby 1

[Bullethead 12]

Most GAMES can trace their origins back to countries other than the U.S.A.. Afterall we've only been around 250 years.

 

Baseball is our only claim to fame.

 

Well, I dunno. Baseball seems to be a bastard child of cricket.

 

There's basketball, but that's really just indoor soccer and of rather less interest to me than baseball.

 

I think we invented tractor pulls, monster trucks, demolition derbies, figure-8 races, all the various frisbee games, quarters, "Hi Bob" and all its variations, snowboarding, and skateboarding.

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

My two Border Collies are very thankful for America's Frisbee invention!!

[OvS 8]

Man Rule #1:

 

Upon the start of the NFL season in August until it's end in February, all previous relations and use of the word Football shall be changed to Soccer.

PS... if you've never played Football, it's something like this... I played as a DB (Cornerback or Safety depending on if we were playing a team that ran more than passed) in High School.... go in your backyard, build up a good head of steam running.... pick a tree out of your yard, then really step on your gas peddel. Drop in low and pop the tree with one of you shoulders as hard as you can... get up, and do it again

 

That's about what it feels like to hit another object weighing more than you (I was about 135, lean and REALLY fast) running at full speed.

 

Football = pain... it's part of the game.

 

OvS

[ConradB 0]

Offensive tackle, and defensive guard here. I was 6 ft, and 210. All the muscle though over the last few years has settled around the midsection though. That's about the bottom line of it there OVS. Darn knees and ankles have been acting up this winter for some reason too.

[catch 81]

 

I can only sum the three versions up as the following.

 

Football - played by pansies who go down at the slightest thing.

American Football - again played by pansies, who only appear brave because of all the protective gear they wear.

Rugby - played by real men, who have a fine disregard for their own safety.

 

 

I mischievously concur .... but .... it helps to have played Rugby (or Cricket) to understand the game. It's too easy for those who haven't played a sport to criticise it and cry "but it's boring" or "I don't understand". Gimme a break. I played both Rugby and Cricket throughout my childhood/teenagehood. I know what they're about and they are both great team sports.

 

I'm loathe to criticise Soccer or American Football as sports because I've never played them. But the soccer "dives" and the "armour" in US football turns me off.

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

I mischievously concur .... but .... it helps to have played Rugby (or Cricket) to understand the game. It's too easy for those who haven't played a sport to criticise it and cry "but it's boring" or "I don't understand".

 

I too have played both these games (due to being forced to by a Neo-Nazi games Teacher)...And I stick like superglue to my earlier comments

[Slartibartfast 153]

Me I tried Soccer sorry Football... Tried Aussie Rules Football also tried American Football with the US Marine's and finally Rugby... this is one sport where in Rugby Union I was a winger (weighing in at a maxium weight of all 11 stone but I had the speed of a fighter jet but the turning circle of a small country) and then in League they through me into the centre silly idea...

 

Note the 11 stone has now expanded to around 14 stone...

[catch 81]

 

Well yes I guess so Unc. But the chance of a wardrobe malfunction is greater

 

 

[OvS 8]

Believe me Catch, the pads don't do much but cushion the impact a little. It's a violent collision that you survive by being conditioned and prepare for it.

 

OvS

[Creaghorn 10]

in wintertime during the offseason some friends and i used to play full contact rugby on frozen grass for fun and to stay in shape for years. from my experience tackling is more exhausting then getting tackled.

in those years i was young and stupid anyway because i was violating my contract with doing non-baseball-stuff wich can get one hurt, but at that time i thought i was invincible to any injury. nope. after some games i broke my ankle and missed the upcoming pre-season and therefor missed my starting spot.

but i can say, i loved to play it and am still missing it

[themightysrc 5]

I'd like to point out that rugby is, in fact, two separate codes. Rugby Union is the more widespread of the two, and involves regional sales managers and actuaries who like to hang around in bars getting wankered with other regional sales managers and actuaries, prior to exhibiting their prowess by lighting their farts in the lounge bar to the delight of both players and innocent onlookers - famillies having a meal out, that sort of thing. The rugby appears to be secondary to such activites.

 

The other code is Rugby League, which is the pro end of the game, and consists of massive Fijians, Aussies and Lancastrians with faces like meat flans hammering away at each other in huge vats of mud in subzero temperatures in grimy post industrial places such as Batley, Whitehaven, Salford and Wigan. And, yes, they do pad up, because otherwise they would end up as paraplegics in about three months.

[Flyby PC 23]

I think Rugby Union looks more and more like Rugby League since turning professional. Just my opinion, but it seems to have lost it's vitality and by comparison with the amateur days, it's a pretty dull spectacle to watch. All that's missing is the sixth tackle rule and there's no difference.

 

When I was at primary school in Hawick, we used to play Cocca rossi, (we never spelt it) which was essentially british bulldog. Unfortunately the playground was concrete and tarmacadam and after a couple of split heads and cuts, Cocca rossi was banned and anybody playing it got the belt. No problem. No cocca rossi? We'll just play full on, full contact, 40-a-side rugby. No ref.

 

Brilliant fun until Peter Esselmont broke his arm. No more rugby in the playground.

 

That's when we started fighting with the high school.

 

Ah the good old days....