For are american friends?

Question

How would you like it if we called American Football " Rugby for wimps " which it obviously is with all that extra padding, is it because your scared of getting hurt or is there a genuine reason for it which we Brits can't see

Answer 1

I'm an American living in England. I've watched rugby. American football is much more hard-hitting. The padding keeps them from being seriously hurt. Well, there are serious injuries, but it would be worse if not for the padding. Rugby bores me. American football is much more exciting. The players are faster, they have better moves, the hitting is fierce. American football actually has plays. In rugby, they just run into the nearest person. Try learning something about American football. Then you wouldn't look so idiotic calling them wimps.

Answer 2

Ok, i started reading this and simply could not help myself.
I am Australian.
I have played rugby, aussie rules and currently play and coach American football (6 years)
I am dealt with this question day in day out, it is always asked by people who have not played the sport.(amer.)
Of all the sports american football is by far the hardest hitting and most technical of the three.
Without pads, you could not play this sport, the aggression and techniques that are involved would not allow the human body to do so.
Now...... i am not saying that rugby isnt a hard hitting game, but i found the coaching principles and techniques of the sport to be almost primal when in comparison to that of AF.
I would almost guarantee that if qualified AF coaches did clinics within these other sports that many would realise just how far behind in the predator stakes those sports are.
Yes, there would be injuries guys, purely because that in order to do some techniques you need the padding to just get up from the hit. I certainly know that i could not drive block (i am a o-lineman) for 60 mins of football against 350+pound opponents, without a helmet and shoulder pads. Your face would be destroyed and shoulders dislocated.
As a coach i quite often used to wear a helmet (no pads) to become involved in a drill, and always came off second best.
So when it comes to the question is AF rugby for wimps?
Take it from someone who has actually played all three of these sports at a high level.
Absolutely Not.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I would invite anyone to take the time to attend a AF training session (just a local amatuer team) and see if they have what it takes to be a AMERICAN FOOTBALL player.

When the hitting starts in our pre-season many so called hard men dissappear.

Enjoy sport, after all it is for fun, but when it comes to making statements about other sports, atleast make it a informed one.

Answer 3

I live in the North of England and used to play Rugby League. Here in the north, we consider Rugby Union to be rugby for wimps. American Football is a completely different sport, of which I am a huge fan.

However, in answer to your question, the American Football players are required by law to wear the padding. The players never wore padding when the game was first around, then the president (I think it was Rooseveldt) passed a law saying that they had to wear the padding etc as he was sick of players dying on the pitch after being hit really hard!

Answer 4

You can call it whatever you want the fact that british people have a problem with the name of the sport just shows how tightly wound you all are and the reason they wear pads is because the men are 2-3 times bigger and stronger than rugby players put a rugby team against a US football team and I would hate to see what happens to the rugby team right well cherio chap

Answer 5

First of all, the word for the context it is being used is OUR not "For are american friends." That right there should highlight the amount of intelligence you possess.

I've watched rugby before. Quite a few times actually. I can't even begin to compare rugby, which is a slow paced, strategy-less game with uncoordinated sub-par athletes to American football. Football here requires talented players. The fastest, strongest, toughest people in this world play football. When you're running at high speeds with the weight and the muscle you have getting hit by other players of the same size you could sustain life-threatening injuries if you didn't have pads on.

Your ignorance is funny because the NFL is going to have a game in Europe next year. Possibly in London. The venue is supposed to receive 80,000 to 100,000+ fans who thankfully do not share your ignorance.

Answer 6

I don't know very much about rugby; I have never watched it. But I know American football players need the pads to help reduce the chance of injuries. The game is so violent that playing without pads would be foolish. It has nothing to do with being a 'wimp'.

Answer 7

Holy good lord some of you people should go and do before you speak you know nothing and really shouldn't waste the time it takes to type an answer. I've played both rugby and american football for a couple of years and I've been injured in both and I can tell you a number of things:
1. American football is definately not for wimps, they wear the pads originally because of the flying V on kickoffs where a number of people were trampled to death and the sport would've been banned by congressional order if they hadn't added more protection. Over the years pads have grown as the game has developed and in a nutshell athletes have become better and more able to deliver a hard hit. The main difference between the hits in rugby and football is distance, in american football on a normal basis you have safteys blitzing from 10 yds deep at running backs taking a running start from ten yards deep this 20 yd. difference means alot of momentum before inmpact, rugby is play from a much shallower depth and thus the momentum before the hit is greatly reduced. Secondly there are the rules governing the tackles. The main difference is that in rugby you must wrap your arms around in a tackle while in american football you can simply put a body part straight into the person in an attempt to stick them six feet under without a backhoe. Trust me when I say wrapping around takes alot of the impact away. Pus in American football you're allowed to drag down by the neck as long as you don't horse collar the guy or grab the facemask while rugby anything above the shoulders is illegal. Plus the addition of helmets makes the rest of the padding essential, you strap a fibreglass bubble onto the front of a motorbike and have a mate run into you at 25 mph and tell me why. At any rate nough said onto the riposte.

Okay let me start by saying I love American football because it's probably the best strategic sport in the world. However, to say that rugby is a plie of crap played by fat bas**rds with Merde for brains is just as wrong. There is a level of strategy to rugby that is just as interesting as that of American football. The difference is spontanaeity (sp? it's late I'm tired). You can't really plan a rugby game step by step a week in advance like american football, Ex: you know the Eagles will bite on play action so you run heavy a couple of downs then pass deep off playaction catching their safeties unaware. For the most part rugby strategy is done on field by the players. Yes you can say the inside centre bites on a fake pass run inside, but during the game there's no garuantee that there isn't another player to the inside. Thus while you might plan that move suddenly there's a flanker there waiting to tear a new hole for your outside centre but he's able to dump it off out of the tackle to the scrum half who takes it the rest of the way for the try. (incedentally isn't it amusing its a touchdown when you don't have to touch it down and a try when alot of the time if you break through they don't even bother trying to tackle you in the scoring area?) At any rate its the strategy of fluid play as opposed to the move counter move strategy of american football.
Ever onwards my ignorant children: Rugby athletes are by far better all round athletes. There are few American footballers who could come over and immediately have a good career in rugby , Vick, Pacman Jones, Kordell Stewart a few years ago, and perhaps some of the more mobile white boy QBs might be able to do it but in reverse, a rugger lad coming to play American football would be bored to tears. It'd be you can run or you can tackle or you can kick choose one and forget about the rest ain't happening. (trust me I know I started with american football now I play rugby, I was invited to play American football again I played one game, started at WR but was bore to tears for the half of the game where the defence was on the field much better playing both) If the superbowl Champs were to play a game against the Heineken Cup Champs one half each rules I reckon the rugby boys would win.

But that does not say that american footballers are rugby wimps, download and watch the NFL faces of death and tell me you can survive those. If you can I'll pay you to play for King's

Answer 8

Football is a lot more interesting to watch than rugby, otherwise the rugby players in America would make a hell of a lot more money. And you can't compare it to the other football (soccer) you usually have to watch that for two hours just to see one goal. How boring!!!!!!!! And for the record maybe the ones who wear the padding are the smart ones!!!

Answer 9

Football regularly causes the most serious injuries of any American sport. The latest case is the guy that committed suicide because of brain damage due to 12 years of playing football.

I am not sure wearing safety equipment makes you a wimp when some 400 pound mack truck is trying to run you into the sod. How more injuries a year were you looking for, we seem to have enough of them already?

-Dio

Answer 10

What u fail to see is that with padding the guys hit harder and they are much faster and stronger than the athletes who play rugby. Granted u guys are tough and all that but the mind works this way - if u r not protected u will not hit as hard.