A SuperBowl in Wembley?

[Fat Tone]

I still think they are all pansies who don't want a little bruising.

[Dr Mordrid]

NO SH*T!

Even in High School the week before a big game one of our alumni would go to the next opponents game armed with an 8mm and get footage we'd watch the day before our game with them. More so now that cheap video cameras are around and even upper level Pop Warner teams have a "film day". He'd also get a headache following the strategies laid out in even a Jr. High football play book. Like going to a military academy.

He really needs to watch the movie "Friday Night Lights", a movie about High School football in Texas where they really take football seriously

Basically Texans live, eat and breathe High School football to the point of obsession.

[TnT]

Well, a few hundred years ago, people charged at each other on a horse, holding a lance, but had to wear a clanky tin suit to protect themselves. Games (yes, games, not sport) that require such armour just bring out the same mediaeval blood-lust, hoping to see others floored and carried off on a stretcher.

Brian, there is an amazing amount of strategy involved in American Football. Coaches and players spend as much time studying game film as they do on the field practicing athletics.

[Dr Mordrid]

I'm with Doc.
>
You HAVE to have pads or else every single frickin rib will break.

Don't get me wrong. Rubgy is an awesome game and rough but you don't get laid out the same way.

I totally agree. Wish I had a dollar for every time I played with broken ribs. Hell, I played three games my senior year with a fractured radius. Amazing what a splint, a 1x2 board and 3 rolls of tape can do for your forearm blocks.

See below for a facsimile



Definition of a defensive lineman (NFL High School website);

The modern defensive lineman must have the strength to defeat the blocker in front of him, the intelligence to analyze the play run by the offense, the speed to rush the passer and pursue quick offensive backs, and the mental and physical toughness to take a pounding play after play.

Great defensive linemen possess all the traits above, plus one more: They are fiercely competitive. Any player who desires to excel as a defensive lineman must develop his competitive instincts.

A defensive lineman must be a fighter, someone who accepts the challenge of one-on-one combat. He must take pride in physically defeating the man who is lined up in front of him. He must understand that by winning these individual battles he is making a great contribution to the defensive team's success.

A good defensive lineman must be totally unselfish, willing to sacrifice his own glory to allow one of his teammates to make the play. The lineman also needs to be self-motivated. Defensive linemen seldom receive the same recognition as linebackers or defensive backs. Great defensive linemen understand the importance of their role in the defense and play with pride and dedication.

Bottom line: American football is war by other means.

[Brian Ellis]

Well, a few hundred years ago, people charged at each other on a horse, holding a lance, but had to wear a clanky tin suit to protect themselves. Games (yes, games, not sport) that require such armour just bring out the same mediaeval blood-lust, hoping to see others floored and carried off on a stretcher.

[Mehen]

According to the Rugby Union website a big player these days runs 110kg (242 lbs).

Hell, hockey players get that big.

I agree with Doc and TnT. You HAVE to have pads for football (and adding in my 2 cents, hockey without pads would be a joke).

edit: adding some more.. cents... growing up, me and a bunch of guys used to play football together - full tackle, no equipment. This was fine when our bones were still young, but when we got to the later years in highschool it got too dangerous. One of the few guys who actually played football (and won a MVP award for Junior football in Winnipeg) was about 300lbs and stood 6'5 by the end of highschool. anyways... collectively multiple concussions, a broken vertebrae, and a broken collar bone later we called it quits. True, not everyone that played was an allstar athlete but; American/Canadian football without equipment just does not work. Its too dangerous.

Looking back.... @#!$ we were stupid

[TnT]

I'm with Doc. In Rugby you have to wrap up to make a tackle. In football you can just go full blast shoulder down right into someones chest. You HAVE to have pads or else every single frickin rib will break.

Don't get me wrong. Rubgy is an awesome game and rough but you don't get laid out the same way.

Ngata was a rugby player and now a defensive tackle.
6 foot 5 inches, 338 lbs when he was in college. He's bulked up since going into the NFL.

http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=3378&SPID=233&DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=22368&Q_SEASON=2005

[Dr Mordrid]

Yup, a very rough game.

It starts with Pop Warner football where >240,000 kids 5 to 16 years old play weekly. Many, if not most, of these move on to Jr. High and High School football.

[FatBastard]

Nothing compared to a football lineman.

The average Life expectancy of professional American football player is 55 years

Suicide by Quarterback - Football Players Dying Young

Michael Arnold Glueck, M.D., and Robert J. Cihak, M.D., The Medicine Men
Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2006

Reprint Information
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Publisher: Conservatives Do Read As Much As Liberals
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It is not a widely disseminated, downloaded or discussed fact that the average life expectancy for all pro football players, including all positions and backgrounds, is 55 years. Several insurance carriers say it is 51 years.

On September 24, Tampa Bay quarterback Chris Simms remained in a football game against Carolina even though he was short of breath, with fractured ribs and a ruptured spleen. He could have died! As of September 27, almost 400 NFL players were on the injured reserve or other unable-to-play lists. I got short of breath just counting.

We've heard of suicide by cop but have never talked about suicide by quarterback (and all positions). This happens every football weekend, from Friday night light to Sunday afternoon and Monday night heavy.

Has the game become too violent for its own good? How many more bodies and brains do we want to destroy? Do we really want to spoil the golden goose or, in this case, the golden lettered brown pigskin? Do we, as a nation, love violence so much that we will not make commonsense changes?
.....

[Dr Mordrid]

We had equally big guys in the scrum and we didn't even have gumshields or soft helmets in those days.

Nothing compared to a football lineman.

According to the Rugby Union website a big player these days runs 110kg (242 lbs). That's the size of an American football fullback, not the largest player on the field by a long shot. That honor belongs to the linemen who can run 136-158kg (300-350 lbs), and sometimes closer to 170kg (375 lbs).

Aaron Gibson was one of the largest at 1.98m (6' 6") and 191.5kg (422 pounds) when he played for the Dallas Cowboys.

[Brian Ellis]

Don't think so!



Don't see much in the way of armour here and this is a top level international match.

OK, rugby may not have 400 lb players, but they certainly go up to 145 kg, which is hardly to be disdained.

[Fat Tone]

It's very early where Doc is right now

[Brian Ellis]

I'm with you, FT. As an ex-schoolboy rugby player (and cricket), I agree that only cissies need armour! We had equally big guys in the scrum and we didn't even have gumshields or soft helmets in those days. A fly half could run faster with the ball without the extra weight and wind resistance of armour. AND the game was not interrupted every few seconds to allow the players to catch their breath.

A little lightweight amateur game:

[Dr Mordrid]

That's ridiculous.

I think the jackets you linked to are to protect others from Real Men who play Rugby.

Not unless rugby players weigh over 300 lbs and can hit like a runaway car, and in my experience that isn't the case. Getting hit by an American/Canadian football lineman or defensive back is totally unlike rugby scrums.

You haven't been there. I have been, as one of those linemen (a defensive tackle). I've seen a quarterback get hit and end up in an ambulance, regardless of the pads. No comparison.

By the way; found some rugby pads;



plus they're starting to use scrum caps, aka helmets, but smaller ones than we use.



Guess they're catching up

[Fat Tone]

Not cotton or wool. Where'd you get that from, a 50's movie?

No, on How It's Made on the Discovery Channel. Apparently the team owners are so nervous about protecting their phenomenally expensive players with all that valuable dentistry work and cosmetic surgery (everyone knows football players are congenitally ugly, right?) that the day they are hired they are forced to lose 100lb then taken to a factory and wrapped in cotton wool and have a protective cage welded to their heads.

At least, that's what the programme said.

I think the jackets you linked to are to protect others from Real Men who play Rugby.