Football vs. Rugby

[Popcynical]

Alright, so, I'm a member on another forum where the majority of its members are European. Whenever I mention American Football (you have to say American Football or they think you're talking about soccer), they start going on and on about how Rugby is so much better and how Americans are girly men because they have to wear pads to play their sports.

While I admit Rugby is pretty intense, Football is definitely not a 'girly sport'.

Any ideas on how to defend my favorite sport? Has anyone else stumbled across this Football vs. Rugby argument? What are your opinions.

[PMoneyTKE]

They just want an excuse to get in a scrum and feel each other up

[knapplc]

Ask them what star Rugby players make over on the continent, then drop some NFL salaries on them. 'Nuff said.

[joelamosobadiah]

Yeah..... there's nothing you can do to convince them of that. It's like arguing that our country is better than theres. They just won't believe you.

[A Fleshner Fantasy]

Yeah..... there's nothing you can do to convince them of that. It's like arguing that our country is better than theres. They just won't believe you.

...although we all know it's true.

[joelamosobadiah]

Yeah..... there's nothing you can do to convince them of that. It's like arguing that our country is better than theres. They just won't believe you.

...although we all know it's true.

Of course.

[sportsaddict]

Honestly I don't even really care what Europeans say about American football... Maybe Rugby is intense, and maybe it's more intense than football, but that doesn't make football any less of a sport as far as toughness and physicality goes.

From what I've heard, Rugby is a "country club" type sport. A sport for the privileged. That's what makes American football a great game- anyone can play it. That's why soccer is so popular, because it's so easy to play and so accessible to everyone.

[maddog60]

As much as football is my favorite sport, rugby is just plain tougher. No pads, less breaks, more running, same amount of hard hitting. There isn't a valid argument other than football is tougher than most, but has to bow to rugby in toughness.

[roninmedia]

On a local sports talk show, there was a former college football player on who went to study over in Oxford after college. He was a defensive end so he was big but he could still run and he talked about he got recruited to play rugby and he said rugby was tougher than football.

The radio host, fitting the stereotypical mold of hating "Euro Sports" rephrased the question as "What's tougher? Rugby or a goal-line stand in the SEC (The player played for the University of Florida)?" The guy answered the latter. Football isn't girly man but I wouldn't say it's tougher than rugby.

[lmcjaho]

On a local sports talk show, there was a former college football player on who went to study over in Oxford after college. He was a defensive end so he was big but he could still run and he talked about he got recruited to play rugby and he said rugby was tougher than football.

The radio host, fitting the stereotypical mold of hating "Euro Sports" rephrased the question as "What's tougher? Rugby or a goal-line stand in the SEC (The player played for the University of Florida)?" The guy answered the latter. Football isn't girly man but I wouldn't say it's tougher than rugby.

My senior year of High School (holy crap that was a long time ago...) I elected not to play Rugby because I wanted to avoid any possibility of injury before the football season. In the end I would have been better served to avoid playing football and stuck with rugby instead.

Rugby is a tough sport, but one of the things that having no pads does is makes the tackling LESS brutal in 95% of cases rather than more. Technique and wrapping up is so much more important in rugby as opposed to the brutal direct contact that is the center of tackling in football.

Now, in the rare direct collision tackles that I have seen and/or been involved in for both sports, for sure rugby takes the cake (I once saw a teammate faceplant a kid so hard he had grass stuck in his braces when he went to get up, and I have personally given a dude a grass-stain on the side of his head before) - but football is more brutal because those collisions occur with MUCH more frequency...

Stamina-wise, there is no argument that can be made to put football above rugby, rugby is much tougher in that regard.