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 , 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

[Lon]

Originally Posted by ArnoldLayne

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.

Sorry Lon I assumed the wrong way round when I saw the flag under your avatar.

Soccer stars here in the UK and in Europe earn upwards of £150,000 a week but never would any commercial enterprise even think of even suggesting changing one iota . It's sacred

Anyway get them big softies to take the body armour and the motor cycle helmets off

[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.

Both , yeah your right but the hooliganism did creep into rugby league a couple of years ago. I think it petered out though.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"

Originally Posted by Jives

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.

To be honest Jives it was a problem through the 70's and 80's but is quite rare now and is certainly more common at football matches in South America and China .Our k**bheads save it for particular international matches on the continent where they get rat a***d on the local brew and forget that the local constabulary is a lot less tollerant than ours.

Im sure your hooligan element just prefer a different venue than a sports arena

[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.