Quote: (07-01-2014 07:42 AM)bojangles Wrote:
I'd agree NFL athletes are stronger and faster, but in completion how high can they jump, how far can they jump, how quick are they are turning (and I know certain positions are good at certain things) but why I saw Ronaldo is complete is because he's quick, agile, strong, got a ridiculous leap etc.
Brojangles, NFL athletes are complete athletic specimens..even more complete than NBA players. Again, I speak from personal experience. As you know, I grew up in countries where football (soccer) was the premier sport. I have played barefoot football in Nigeria and I have played football growing up in London, England. During P.E, we would play indoor football or outdoors on the pitch. One of the guys in my secondary school went professional in the English league and is a reasonably paid striker. I remember him in the first year, he was as fast and had unlimited cardio. He would play football ALL the time.
From that personal experience, I have seen guys that could had crazy footwork with the football and were technically sound as could be. Headers, timing, cuts to the goal etc.
Physically, they could run forever.
There were guys in my class that would use their left foot for striking although they were naturally right handed and incidentally, right footed. This was ingenious in my opinion because during opportunities to score, if you get the ball on your off foot side, the time it takes you to adjust and get ready to score can be time lost and give the defence and the goalie time to regroup and stymie your strike attempt. If you are comfortable with the left and you receive the ball on your right side, due to you naturally being rightfooted, you can boot that shyt into the goal without having to fall back to your 'strong' foot.
I was in Georgia, USA some years back and I used to be ball crazy. I played pickup basketball with some of the guys that were on the college football team and I was blown away by their overall strength, speed of the guys. Some of the shorter guys, 5'8 etc..were rippling with abs, traps and taut, pecs and demanding alley oops be thrown during 2 on 1 offense on fast breaks. They would assault the basketball rim (10 feet off of the ground) with reckless abandon.
Every time I went into the college gym, the American football guys were in there almost like it was a club, always on the bench or the squat rack.
So in comparing the two groups (football (soccer) players and American football players), I would say:
NFL athletes have upper body strength
as well as lower body strength and hence are a complete
PHYSICAL package. I don't believe you would have any cats such as Kevin Durant playing in the NFL (so mawga like dawg) but if you did witness a cat in there with such a slight build, you can bet your bottom dollar that he would be as fast as greased lightning.
Comparatively, you can perhaps compare rugby athletes to NFL. The only reason football (soccer) gets such an acclaimed mention here is due to
its popularity world wide. America
might be the only country where you
may be stumped at times to find a group of guys who can't go for a kickaround. Even in India which is cricket crazy, I'[m certain you can find a group of IRT's who are up for a game of eleven a side without having to go too far. As aforementioned, you don't need to be buff to play football. Women can even play with men without much of a disadvantage if she is nimble with the feet. One Argentine I used to work with said he went home (to Argentina) and saw dimes chilling, walking on the beach, playing keep ups with a football as they chatted amicably amongst each other.
As forementioned, football requires minimal equipment (which can exclude the poor who don't have money for expensive gear) to play. It doesn't leverage on athleticism in a major way (you don't need to be tall, strong or fast in order to excel at football). This leaves it open for any country on earth, any body type really and hence easy to get involved with.