Next American Football question from Retard English Boy...What is the deal with all that padding you wear?

Question

Don't get me wrong I love watching it, I use to support the Chicago Bears in Walter Paytons days (it isn't on English TV very much)

However, Rugby seems harder, faster, it is continous, you get jumped by loads of huge great hairy bast ards, they drag you to the ground and THEN everyone else (including your own players) jump on you - and that is part of the rules!

People sit on your head all the time. you get eye gouged, fish hooked, stomped on, punched, kicked, bitten regularly...yet in rugby we don't bother with the heavy armour that American Football has.

When did American Football get the padding and helmets? If one guy wears it, everyone else would need to, I can see that...but If no one wore it, no one would need it surely?

I get it, it is sport full of fat people...now it makes sense

Answer 1

my son just started playing football for middle school so I dont know a whole lot about it but I would rather him have the pads and not get hurt....even in 8th grade some of those kids are huge....I almost cried when I saw my baby being tackled to the ground...

Answer 2

The padding is to keep the players from dying all the time. It's just a difference in the way the games are played. Football has bigger faster players put in situations where they can hit harder than in Rugby/Austrailian rules. Even with the pads, you get players injured every single game. Imagine how it would be without the pads, they wouldn't be able to finish a game! But hey, rugby players can make it in the nfl too, Darren Bennet made it (though I think he played Aussie rules football). He made it as a kicker, the pussiest position on the field.

Answer 3

I played both rugby and football, and there's no comparison in terms of danger. Given that the players in football are heavier and faster, the sheer force of the collisions is much greater. Further, offensive players such as receivers and running backs are far more exposed to devastating hits during the course of play than a rugby player. Imagine being a wide receiver going up for a pass, and taking a hit from a 260 pound linebacker at a combined velocity of 40-45 miles per hour, and you get an idea of the physics involved.

The other thing to consider is that football emphasis hitting much more than rugby.

Answer 4

They where helmets and padding, because players hit harder and the collision is huge. Back and the day football players only wore leather helmets, but they were not big compared to guys now. Seriously, these guys back in the day and players now would be in the hospital because of the high impact nowadays. Rugby is tough sport, but the guys playing them would not last long without helmets or pads against NFL players. While rugby players are pretty big, they don't even compare to the measurable of NFL players. Ronnie Brown for Miami is 235 lbs and runs a 4.44 40. How would like that collision. Linebackers at 250 lbs are running high 4.5s. Julious Peppers at 278 or so runs that speed, and Jason Taylor, Shawn Merriman is really fast as well. Vernon Davis a TE in last years draft weighs about 270 lbs and he ran 4.38 40. Now that is rediculous. That is fast really fast for players half his size let alone his muscle mass. So you add all this raw muscle mass, raw power and strength with athletes who are zipping through like torpedos creates quite a collision with that velocity and size.

Answer 5

The padding also helps turn someone into a missle--they can charge full power into a couple defenders (though it seems like a whole pile of people), only hoping to move the pile three or four yards. Football is more about the ten-yard fight for a first down than making it to the goal line, so these small (by the standards of other sports) gains are very meaningful. The pads let you throw your body around more.

Answer 6

With the amount of money involved you need to protect the players. Also in rugby you don't have 300lbs + people trying to tackle you. I would also like to think that athletes in American football are playing at a higher level. I believe the pads are needed to prevent certain injuries. It is a different sport after all.

Answer 7

Fat people? Have you seen Terrell Owens with his shirt off?
It's typically linemen who can get a little heavy, as they usually clear 300 pounds.

It began with modest padding in the early 20th century. Guys were dying on the field, so they graduated to leather helmets. And yes, as more padding appeared, more padding was needed as protection against that of other people.

I think the rules are different enough to justify there being pads in American FB and not in rugby.
Rugby is designed to advance the ball by way of continually pitching it to teammates. You don't get "downs", it's all sort of one try.
In American FB, you only get four tries to advance at least 10 yards, so you design each try to maximize your personnel. Thus, your big hoss linemen block the big hoss defensive linemen in order to create the slightest opening for an individual ball carrier to advance as far as possible on each try.

That's not to say one is better than the other, they're just different.

Answer 8

I am English and am not a retard. There is a big difference between being tackled in rugby and being hit in football have played both and can tell you without padding there would be deaths or near death experience in every game played. Whatch 5 for live games on terrestial TV my retarded friend.

Answer 9

College Football was huge once the game started in around the early 1900's. Problem was it was very violent and injuries and deaths were very common. So the President eventually stepped in and threatened to suspend the sport if the deaths weren't lowered. I wouldn't call you retarded so much as ignorant. You seem willing to learn just need the info.

Answer 10

Let me just say this...

Picture yourself being hit by a 300 lb line backer at full speed..

now wouldnt you want to be wearing protection?

thought so!
yes rugby/soccer players wear little to no protection but how may of them weigh 300 lbs and can run the 400 in 40 seconds flat?