Steven Harris writes:
And don’t defend American Football by pointing out the great and wondrous athletic strength of the players either. They don’t even dare to step on the field without putting a three-piece suite up their jumpers first. Real men don’t wear padding.
Steven is a Brit as far as I can tell so I can’t fault him too much for not understanding the physicality of American Football, but the link above is to a video of some rugby players being tackled. It is an urban legend that rugby is the tougher sport. As my fellow Daily Scribe member Ben said in one of our message board threads:
1. The belief that Rugby players are “tougher” and their sport is “tougher” is a falsehood. 95% of a rugby match takes place lined up face to face with no room to build up speed or momentum. If you believe that a 200 pound man pushing against another 200 pound man from one foot away is the same as a 250 pound man running at full speed in one direction for 5-10 yards and then being hit by one or two or three other 250 pound guys who are running at full speed to intercept is the same then you need to learn physics.
2. The average size of a Rugby player is far below that of an NFL player. Strength, speed and agility all go to NFL players as well.
3. The strategy and planning involved in football is what makes it an advanced sport as opposed to running the same 3 plays over and over and playing purely off of reaction and instinct.
Here, here! How right he is. Put any rugby player in the world into the NFL and they would be crushed in an instant. I can’t even fathom the thought of them making it through NCAA football.
B”H
Posted in Apologetics, Sports
