Quick Guide to USA Sports, for our friends across the Pond:

(1) Football - This is not the Football you are thinking of. We call your Football "Soccer". This game is played with an oblong leather ball, and despite the name, involves very little contact with the human foot. Object of the game is to advance the ball across the 100 yard long field, against enemy opposition. You score points when the ball is advanced across the goal line.

Popularity: IMMENSE -  This is arguably the most popular team sport in the USA.

(2) Basketball - Object of the game is to throw a large round ball through a high metal hoop (only slightly larger than the ball), which is attached to a woven mass of strings called a "net". The other team tries to prevent you from doing this, while at the same time doing it as many times as they can. Height is a definite advantage in this game.

Popularity: VERY Popular

(3) Baseball - Object of the game is to try to hit a small ball with a wooden stick that is "pitched" towards you by the opposing team. Once you hit the ball, you have to run around a "diamond" (basically a circle) and touch several "bases" on your way to "home plate", at which time you "score" one "run" (point).

Popularity: Still very popular, but on the decline in recent years.

Stock Car Racing (i.e. "NASCAR") - Object of this game is to drive a car (which, despite the name, is highly modified from "stock") around in circles of anywhere from 1/2 mile to a mile or more, at high speeds for hours and be the first one to cross the "finish line" after a set number of revolutions have been completed.

Popularity: Very Popular in the Southern USA. Not as much in other parts of the country.

Hockey - Played on Ice. Object of this game is to hit a "puck" (small black, heavy disk) into the opposing teams "net" with a wooden stick. Opposing team tries to stop you form doing this, while at the same time trying to do it to you as may times as possible.

Popularity: Popular in the Northern States. Not so much in the Southern states.

Soccer - "Football" everywhere else in the world. An "also ran" sport in the USA. Sad, because the sport demands the players to be extremely athletic.

Boxing - Object of this sport is to strap padded gloves on your hands and pummel your opponent until he is unconscious or until the "judges" decide you have clearly shown your superiority.

Popularity: On the decline, due to fight "fixing" and the fact that MMA is becoming more popular.

MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) - Object of this sport is to strap on much less padded gloves than boxing and either pummel your opponent until he is unconscious or to grapple him until he "submits' (gives up). You can also win by "judges decision", similar to boxing.

Popularity: Rapidly gaining in popularity, since this is seen as being more of a "pure" form of unarmed combat than boxing.

That's pretty much it for USA sports. There are others, but they aren't nearly as popular. Road Bicycle Racing was semi-popular for a while, during Lance Armstrong's reign, but it will rapidly slip into obscurity again, IMHO, now that he has retired.

Now if someone will just explain Cricket to me....

Hi,

oh, you must have done Ash?

(1) American Football - this is rugby for nancy-boys. Theyre so scared of getting hurt they have to wear a lot of padding, and have a break every 10 seconds or so, as their ickle leggies are so tired.  

(3) known here as ROUNDERS and played almost exclusively by adolescent girls, except in the USA where it is considered such a great sport they have a World Series - but as all the other countries teams are still at school, only America takes part  

Cheers,
Malc

ashmire13 wrote:I'm glad you've cleared that up, because living in such a backwater over here, I'd never heard of many of these sports....

Glad I could help.

Oh, I almost forgot Professional Wrestling!

Not really a sport, but more of a spectacle. Similar to a circus, Professional Wrestling is.....geez, how do I describe it?....composed of very large, muscular men who compete in a "popularity contest" to see who is the loudest, most "over the top" personality. "Wrestling" plays a very small part, and spectacle is everything. There is no denying that most of the participants are very athletic, however the competition is "fixed" and the owners (Powers That Be) decides who "wins" and "loses" the matches.

Popularity - Very Popular, but, IMO, becoming less so now that MMA (which is more "real"), is becoming more popular. There has been some intermingling between MMA and Professional Wrestling.

lawrenson wrote:(1) American Football - this is rugby for nancy-boys. Theyre so scared of getting hurt they have to wear a lot of padding, and have a break every 10 seconds or so, as their ickle leggies are so tired.  

(3) known here as ROUNDERS and played almost exclusively by adolescent girls, except in the USA where it is considered such a great sport they have a World Series - but as all the other countries teams are still at school, only America takes part  

Ah yes, Rugby. So obscure here in the USA that I almost forgot about it. Has a semi-macho image, but no one here really knows the rules. Seems to be played mostly by college students who don't play more popular sports and like to drink a lot of beer. Someone needs to explain the rules, which seem to be only slightly less complicated than Cricket.

killjoy32 wrote:rugby is far simpler than american football, that i can tell you.

and having experienced both watching and playing i can tell you that rugby is massively more difficult physically.

Al

Painful, massively more painful, I played a few games of rugby in college and my head is still hurting, and I still don't know the rules.

JasonZavoda wrote:
Painful, massively more painful, I played a few games of rugby in college and my head is still hurting, and I still don't know the rules.

Of course its more painful.  You dont wear pads or a helmet it is going to hurt a lot more.  Fucking stupid if you ask me.  

Kingofpain89 wrote:
Just looking at some of the statistics of the typical professional rugby players, they arent nearly as big or strong as your typical NFL player.  How many rugby players weigh 300 pounds, bench press 500 pounds and run the 40 meter sprint in 4.3 seconds?  Probably not that many I would expect.  If you had those types of players slamming into each other full tilt without pads you would see a lot of serious life-threatening injuries every game.  Probably a few deaths as well.  That is why they wear pads and helmets.  That and because women appreciate a full set of teeth.

American football is just as dangerous as rugby.  Anyone who says otherwise has never played it.

The reason they wear padding in football is because of the number of deaths in the early part of the 20th century while playing football, mostly in the college game. The game was getting a very dire reputation at the time and the compromise was to let the athletes wear padding or the government was going to shut down the sport entirely. At this point, American teams make such a huge investment in their athletes that it only makes sense to protect the investment. I suspect if rugby players were paid anything close to a American football player it would change the sport entirely. From what I see rugby athletes are used up quickly and tossed aside for new stars, because the game is so physically demanding. IMO, I don't see this as desirable but as sheer lunacy, when you don't build up a star system you don't allow the sport to catch on elsewhere, which is why 99% of Americans couldn't name a rugby star to save their life.

I suspect if you saw dozens of deaths in rugby things would change there also, but you won't because the game is played at a much slower speed and level of skill than American football, not to mention a lower class of athlete overall.  However, the lack of the forward pass in Rugby really makes the sports impossible to compare, as positions such as QB and WR really have no equivalent in rugby.

Mike B.

Kingofpain89 wrote:Put on the pads and helmet and run at full speed towards another person that is also running at full speed towards you and all they are thinking about is hitting you hard enough to maim or kill you.  Let me know at what point you piss yourself.
American football is just as dangerous as rugby.  Anyone who says otherwise has never played it.

John

i HAVE played both. your game IS hard....yes it is and i will attest to that, but let me put this one by you. as you quoted above, you do the opposite. take all the pads and protection off and do the same thing...and then tell ME at which point you piss yourself

they are just different games and both have the hard points.

rugby simply requires more stamina and is more physical due to you have slight to no protection from being hit, thats all

both are fantastic games. oh and i am talking about Rugby League as well, not Union

Al  

but then i also have to say, the Rangers game me and mike went to watch the other night was AWESOME!

Al