Badmike wrote: 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.  
Mike B.

Mike

before you make a comment such as that, go catch some highlights of say i dunno, Australia vs New Zealand or England vs Australia and then tell me you still qualify the above.

much slower speed? you have SERIOUSLY got to be kidding me. Union maybe, league not on your life! lower level of skill? you definately havent ever watched a game. i need to send you over some videos of it to check out.

lower class of athlete...hmmm if there was only a way we could get both on a pitch to play a half of each game.

they are just different games. Rugby League is everywhere as much as your football mate.

Al

ps. and i see poor Australia got hammered in the footie earlier too. totally outclassed by the Germans.

Badmike wrote:
Great athletes in a totally different way!  Nothing like seeing a player absolutely crush a baseball as Vlad did one night and bust it over the fence and almost to the outer wall. Also love seeing a pitcher make a batter look stupid whizzing 100 mph fastballs past him like nothing.  

Not very good pitching the night Al and I watched the game but some great hitting and several awesome plays in the infield and outfield to get outs (not on the Mariners part, that is one godawful ballclub at this time).

Mike B.

and of course, the ahtleticism mike puts away 5 hotdogs too...wow i was speechless!

faro wrote:Probably a large number go unreported - at my father's school there was one death in rugby and one in cricket. Goes with the territory.
(Still a darn sight safer than jumping on a motorbike and blasting off around the Isle of Man in the name of sport - 229 dead and counting from a few days per year with one fatality-free year in the past 25 or so).

Living life padded in cotton wool doesn't appeal to everyone, I guess. ^^

The US is starting a rugby league I believe next year so we'll see if it catches on. Right now it's popular in college and in local leagues but I'd say most Americans are totally unaware of it (unlike soccer/football, which has millions of rabid fans here in the US).

The Isle of Man motorbike races are simply insane! My mom and dad had good friends there and visited for several years in the 70s and 80s. They made sure to schedule their trips after or before the motorbike races as the Isle became crazy at that time, especially "Mad Sunday" when I believe anyone could take to bike and zip around the tracks. Their hosts told tales of the many deaths during practically every year of the races, seemingly proud of the fact of how deadly the tracks were.

Mike B.

Badmike wrote:The US is starting a rugby league I believe next year so we'll see if it catches on.

Darn; does that make it 104-all for Rugby Union vs. Cricket...

Badmike wrote:The Isle of Man motorbike races are simply insane! My mom and dad had good friends there and visited for several years in the 70s and 80s. They made sure to schedule their trips after or before the motorbike races as the Isle became crazy at that time, especially "Mad Sunday" when I believe anyone could take to bike and zip around the tracks. Their hosts told tales of the many deaths during practically every year of the races, seemingly proud of the fact of how deadly the tracks were.

[OT] Yep; generally a free-for-all that day. You'd think the thought of coming off a bike at 120-190mph on a public road with houses, walls, trees, etc., is a pretty good way to focus the mind. Still doesn't stop it happening.
( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVXc29ZgutI&fmt=22 / http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFUYIH2Ttzk&fmt=18 for a full lap on-bike footage for those who don't know what we're talking about! Biker in question in that vid got away with an accident at 170mph this year...)

I don't know if it still is, but at one time here in the states Cheerleading was the most "dangerous" sport in high school athletics.

I love this topic.  

American football is distinctly American...which is stupid to say, but what I mean is that it is the most American sport:

1)  Violent
2)  Expensive
3)  Miltaristic
4)  Thinking/Strategy
5)  Flashy/Colorful/Heraldic

Comparing the relative violence of football and rugby is pointless because the violence takes different forms.  The type of contact, the way one team confronts and attacks the other, the way a blow is struck...not the same things.  There are American female rugby leagues, for instance, but virtually no females playing football because the type of contact and risk of injury are quite different.

American football is unlikely to catch on in other countries because football is rooted in the American school system...very unlike club sports in other countries.  A football program is the visible tip of a whole underlying scaffold of facilities, community, family and school support structure.  You can't even really practice it on your own.  When two teams meet it is a clash of entire school systems rather than just a game between several dozen guys.

Kingofpain89 wrote:
Again....did this as well.  Rugby league players are fit bastards.  No doubt about that.  Much more so than NFL players for the most part.  I'm not disputing that.  What I am disputing is that playing American football is for "nancy-boys" as Malc so eloquently put it.

well i can first-hand tell you that getting hit by a 300lb guy even with pads on etc frickin well hurts.

your guys take way more injuries to the knees/legs as well - as thats where a hell of a lot of contact is - i still think thats crazy.

i once hit a guy and i had to tackle him. he prb had about 100lbs on me at least. i picked him up and stuck him on his ass - was a great tackle. he looked at me in shock and i smiled...problem was my neck and shoulder was numb for about 40 mins for the rest of the game....was one of the scariest feelins i ever had - and stupid my carried on playing too

Al

JasonZavoda wrote:The only sport I can see as more geared to injury than American football or rugby is boxing.

<<
Maclean (1989) examined shinty-related injuries and found that this sport was top of the list compared to injury rates for other amateur sports, with a rate of two and a half times that of soccer and nearly three times that of rugby. The injury rate in shinty was several times that of hockey, to which it is clearly related.
>>

Obscure enough?

Goes without saying that the soccer injuries in that survey were, on average, relatively less serious.

brute wrote:Good article on shinty. I remember years ago checking around here for a shinty league. Still, never played, but enjoy highland games events instead.

Watch out you don't get hit by any trees.

Shinty's somewhat safer these days what with pads and even (sometimes) helmets... No longer use a hardwood ball, either, and not sure why laminate rather than solid sticks are a step forward when those just break on the opposition.



At least body contact is still AOK so long as you're playing the ball. (Fouls are discretionary).



To be honest, football/soccer around here doesn't seem to be played /quite/ as roughly either, whereas rugby is probably just about as dangerous as ever as there's less scope for "safety" measures (steel exoskeletons not withstanding ^^). Guess that varies on where one plays, though.