I just watched American Football

[whatthefudge]

Have Beef with football?? Peyton fucking hillis!

What? Petyon Hillis is one of the most overrated football players the NFL has ever had and is a horrible example of what is good about football.

[Hotic]

You should watch rugby instead, like american football without the pads and no pauses every 20 sec

[pleaserelax]

isn't it just rugby with body armour?

Find some NFL's hardest hits highlight reels. Compare it to hard hits in rugby. You'll see a substantial different there alone, disregarding that they are entirely different games.

[Herecius]

If you want some great examples of rules violations, watch a Lions game.

GO LIONS.

But no, it's nice to see a European-originating comment that sincerely enjoyed American Football, instead of just jumping to the knee-jerk standard 'this sucks it isn't football' position.

One thing I find very cool about football is the nature of the strategy from play-to-play. A big complaint I often see about American Football is that it seems very stop-and-go, because there's a pause between every play, but that's because each team is hammering out what their setup and strategy for the next play is. As an observer with the bird's eye view, it's very interesting, because you get to see those strategies play out right in front of your eyes... all while guys in 50 pounds of padding smash the everloving shit out of each other at high speed.

And I know the whole 'rugby players don't use padding thing,' but the big hits in the NFL are absolutely insane. Some of the players are 300 pound freight trains of humanity, and they will plow into somebody and send them flying. The hits NFL players sometimes take could outright kill some people without the padding.

[Ihnasir]

Wisconsin vs Michigan St. was one of the best games this past weekend. There have been a lot of rules put in for safety reasons that some can say have "watered down" the sport. As has been said, the rules aren't difficult, it's in the plays and reactions.

[Herecius]

Wisconsin vs Michigan St. was one of the best games this past weekend. There have been a lot of rules put in for safety reasons that some can say have "watered down" the sport. As has been said, the rules aren't difficult, it's in the plays and reactions.

At least the safety-related rules haven't gone the way of the NHL... poor hockey. Might as well just give them all foam sticks and whiffle balls and have them play on safety mats at this point.

[Benaud]

Get some rugby into you. The rules take some learning but its a heavy contact sport and the game doesn't stop anywhere near as much. And there's a number of Euro nations that have good domestic and international sides thrown in. Nowhere near as many as soccer of course.
Couple of teams from the NFL came to play an exhibition down here in Australia about 10 years ago and I went along for a look, learned the better part of the rules. It could be a very good game but there were way too many stoppages in play and anything I've seen on TV doesn't really suggest its ever otherwise. A good game can be dramatic and tense despite this but its still a problem for me.
I also really dislike the idea of different teams for different roles. In my mind you field your best team for a sport, throw in a few subs for injury or fresh legs and that's it.

[zexcis]

Considering players get an entire week (normally) in between games to recover plus a mid season bye week, and still carry injuries through the majority of the season usually, it is entirely necessary to have separate personnel groups for offense and defense.

[Marimba]

You must no watch a lot of basketball. The last 2 minutes of every close game takes about 15-20 minutes to complete because each team just hacks the other to take free throws. Hockey is where it is really at for non-stop action.

Or lacrosse

[Albert the fish]

What injuries? They wrap themselves in tank armour.

I know rugby and I kinda get NFL, but the constant time out's and having diff teams for offence and defense makes the game's take too long.

it's not tank armour. think of it as more of.... an offensive weapon you can wear!

[Badpaladin]

it's not tank armour. think of it as more of.... an offensive weapon you can wear!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bf4yrMNMxoc
Yes, definitely tank armor here . I cringe to think what a 250 pound linebacker running at full speed feels like. But yeah, American Football is amazing. Once you start getting into it you realize that it's like an extremely complex strategy game. The reason for the breaks, aside from commercials happening, is that the time is needed for teams to formulate strategic ways to do well on the next play given minor adjustments.

[Klingers]

NFL TL;DR: Think Rugby played by girly-men who strap pads all over themselves in case they break a nail. Thusly, American Football was born.

[Badpaladin]

NFL TL;DR: Think Rugby played by girly-men who strap pads all over themselves in case they break a nail. Thusly, American Football was born.

Spoken like somebody who probably doesn't understand much about either sport.

[Klingers]

Spoken like somebody who probably doesn't understand much about either sport.

NFL has more heavy restrictions on kicking the ball. Unlike rugby you lose possession once you boot it so you might as well make that kick count. NFL allows you one forward pass per play, usually the quarterback's throw. NFL is much more of a stop-start game with shorter plays.

Was that ignorant enough for you? :-P

[tennesseej]

On a slight side note, I used to like Football a bit when I was younger, but that was mostly because of the atmosphere around the game and how big of a deal it is here in the US.

Once I got to college I started to learn a lot more about the rules, and specifically the strategies in the game, and I absolutely love it now. There is a wealth of knowledge, and the best part is you can pretty much learn at your own pace, and still enjoy the game along the way (once you get the base idea down).

Also I was so glad to read you were watching a College game. A lot of College games are fantastic, and it's nice to see players more players playing for their teammates and their pride/glory, and not for their paycheck.

[Hooky]

if u like NFL u might like Rugby...theres probably hits equal to or even harder than NFL, + most dont wear any armour

[tennesseej]

NFL TL;DR: Think Rugby played by girly-men who strap pads all over themselves in case they break a nail. Thusly, American Football was born.

On sports science they broke down both sports, and they figured out that both sports are of comparable roughness. In football, you wear pads and get hit a lot less, but the football players they tested consistently hit much harder than rugby players. Rugby is a much more fluid sport, so you get hit a lot more, but you don't get some of the huge cross slams that you get when a guy has only been running for 3 seconds instead of 30 minutes.

The easiest way to compare roughness is by injury rate. I believe that Rugby and Football have pretty similar injury rates, while something like Baseball has significantly less, so you can say it is less rough.

BTW: Here is a link to the Sports Science thing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7tGY-VDx3o

[Badpaladin]

A hit that's three times as hard sounds about right for American Football. Because there's no padding, hits in Rugby are far more "wrap up" with tackling angles more suited for that rather than full-tilt ramming (because that would probably kill more people than already die already).

[belfpala]

A hit that's three times as hard sounds about right for American Football. Because there's no padding, hits in Rugby are far more "wrap up" with tackling angles more suited for that rather than full-tilt ramming (because that would probably kill more people than already die already).

Also, I think what many people fail to consider is that the so-called armor is also a weapon. And it can also be used against a player--horse collar tackles, face masking, etc (all illegal, but it happens). I'd much rather play rugby, myself, in terms of personal safety.

[Idrinkwhiterussians]

Here is a video of some hits from last season. Sorry bout the somewhat vulgar music.