Now, I really hate soccer

[shobet]

For us, here, a "Football" is a ball. For you guys, it's a way to play ball without using hands. Anyone have any ideas as to what we should rename our "Football" so it doesn't offend those guys with great legs?:ROTF: :ROTF:

Fattyball?
Dress up in pads, run a bit, take some oxygen in the frequent breaks, repeat until 4 days have passed.

I don't know the history of American football but did it evolve from rugby?
Now that's a real game, not like soccer/football (whatever) where they roll around in agony if they break a hair on their overpaid heads. Smash the living fuck out of each other for 80 mins. then after the game is over into the pub to drink yourself into a stupor with the opposition. Now that is what I call competative sport!

[danastas]

He sure does, but why not stick with the original word, Football? You know, like in Football Association, of which there are many in the world.

Damn, I'm stuck in a Football (or Sucker) thread - I don't even like Football....

The Brits started calling it soccer over a century ago. Why blame Americans?

[danastas]

Americans have known about soccer for a while. Look at the history of the World Cup. Some American teams advanced pretty far over 80 or 90 years ago. This was BEFORE American football became popular. The name soccer comes from Assoc. That's the name the Brits used for soccer in the 1800s.

As for Americans who hate soccer, like Jim Rome, I'm fine with it. But if you're going to hate soccer, don't you dare go on and on about Tennis, Golf or NASCAR. If you hate soccer, you are limited to discussing football, baseball and hockey, maybe basketball. Nothing more, or you show you're just a jingo.

[fett]

God knows, I tried to embrace soccer. Way back when they had the SWW League. (Soccer Won't Work) like in the '70's. I went to a game in Oakland. There were about 1000 people there. Boring.

[danastas]

God knows, I tried to embrace soccer. Way back when they had the SWW League. (Soccer Won't Work) like in the '70's. I went to a game in Oakland. There were about 1000 people there. Boring.

That's like saying, I tried to embrace heavy metal. I listened to my next door neighbor's kid (who had just purchased a "heavy metal" guitar the previous week) jamming in his garage without a drummer and a bassist, and I knew that type of music wasn't for me.

[VitaminG]

I don't know the history of American football but did it evolve from rugby?

yup. Rugby evolved from soccer when a kid at Rugby College picked up the ball and ran with it. American Football evolved from rugby when American moms decided that junior couldn't play football unless he was wearing a helmet & shoulder pads first.

[buzzsaww]

Origins of american style football

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_American_football

[slayer32390]

Soccer sucks and it`s a gay sport...look at the guys what they do when one of them hits a goal ... and yes they od shower together after the game...NAKED ...

For the most part I'm with you except for that dude that headbutted the other guy that was them greatest thing to happen to soccer...ever. And even better sport? Full-Contact Badminton. I have played it and it is beyond fun.

[danastas]

yup. Rugby evolved from soccer when a kid at Rugby College picked up the ball and ran with it. American Football evolved from rugby when American moms decided that junior couldn't play football unless he was wearing a helmet & shoulder pads first.

As someone who has played both sports, let me say ya don't know what you're talking about. Seriously, the kids are so much harder in American football, it's not even funny.

[thetroy]

yup. Rugby evolved from soccer when a kid at Rugby College picked up the ball and ran with it. American Football evolved from rugby when American moms decided that junior couldn't play football unless he was wearing a helmet & shoulder pads first.

They didn't have helmets or pads when American Football started.

[VitaminG]

well sure, man. Professional rugby players survive on a strict diet of greasy meat pies & warm lager. And a good smoke after the game. Training involves carrying their bag to a game. No way that a Rugby Pro would be as fit or strong or committed as an American Pro Footballer.

it was a joke, dude. I enjoy both games, but it's always fun to watch people get so riled up about unimportant stuff, like when fun is made of the amount of armour your footballers wear.

Considering that the kids there would grow up imagining themselves playing in the NFL, and that Rugby is played as a social sport or an afterthought over there, it's understandable that young athletes playing American Football would treat it more seriously and train harder at it than at rugby. Over here, it's the other way around. American Football is a social sport here. The level of the best gridiron competition is much, MUCH lower than even club grade rugby.

[danastas]

Don't get me wrong, I love Rugby.

But I'm talking about the level of competition I've played in. For instance, I can compare American high school football to college Rugby, and travelling to Scotland where we got our butts kicked by university teams that were quite serious. We went down to the Bahamas and played their English Rugby Football Club (they were quite serious about it0. Now, this isn't professional Rugby, but neither is high school football in the states.

The difference is, in Rugby, you rarely get a clean hit because the ball is out so fast. In American football, you have one guy carrying the football and the rest of the team trying to maul him. Straight up shots to the head. Plus, in Rugby, they teach you how to tackle properly (with your neck to the side of the runner's body, whereas in football your neck is dangerously underneath or else straight on. We absolutely destroyed those effete Scottish boys, only to watch helplessly as the ball was to the other side of the pitch and their wing was sprinting down the field for try after try. They taught us a lesson. They were better served by taking us down and popping back up.

It's just a difference in the sport, at ANY level.

[VitaminG]

fair call. You rarely see those spectacular shots where a QB or WR is left spinning in the air after a high hit in rugby.

As you say, the focus on tackling in rugby is on getting the man down and quickly back to your feet to play at the ball, since the rolling nature of play means the ball is moved on so quickly from the tackle. So hits tend not to be as brutal.

However, tackling is a much more serious business in Rugby League (the form you'd be familiar with is also known as Rugby Union) as a completed tackle does stop play. Rather than releasing the ball back for a teammate as in RU, the tackled man must stand and play the ball underfoot to a teammate in RL, giving the defending team time to reset their defense. You'll often see a player running at full speed to be met by 3 or 4 tacklers intent on hitting him so hard that the ball jars loose. But still, the tackler can pass to a team mate, so the tackler is conscious of the need to quickly get off his man and chase should the ball be offloaded.

If you had to be concerned with the tackled man offloading the ball to a runner in NFL, all tacklers couldn't commit to putting one man down, because stopping one man won't completely stop play.

[buzzsaww]

people regularly died when american football started

They didn't have helmets or pads when American Football started.

[shobet]

people regularly died when american football started

Was that in the stands from boredom?

PS is baseball like our rounders?