I'm late to this discussion but I wanted to engage this bit:
Quote: (04-22-2013 12:40 AM)Vacancier Permanent Wrote:
The only American, sorry meant North American as it's a Canadian game where I'd consider true alpha game is ice hockey. It's a tough, extremely physical game where skills are very high and needed.
While Americans frequently display an extreme ignorance toward world football (soccer) that I can't endorse, I have to say that you're underselling American football here.
American football players have a) the shortest careers, b) the highest rates of serious violent injury and c) the lowest compensation of just about any major team sport (I'm comparing the NFL to the NBA, MLB, NHL, and top-flight association football as well).
There is no team game that puts you at greater risk for serious injury and compensates you less for it. This is a big reason why football season contains so few contests (NFL players hit 20 games in a season max, MLB guys do hundreds, NBA guys do 80+, and top-flight footballers can get 50+ appearances in a year) and it is also why the NFL (and american football in general) is under significantly more legal pressure right now than other leagues/sports. People are starting to realize just how dangerous it is, enough so that there could be serious legal consequences.
It is unrealistic to promote ice hockey as an "alpha game" for its toughness and physicality while in the same breath looking down on American football. American football is a significantly more physically punishing and dangerous game, and soon there may be class-action lawsuits to prove it (the stats and studies are already there).
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IMO, the ultimate alpha team sport is Rugby. No protection at all, they still keep on playing while bleeding! Where a guy gets injured, the play continues! And once you get subbed, you can't return to the game! 80 minutes of action packed, end to end stuff with not a single moment to take it easy save at half time and even then it's not always the case! Take any NFL guy and put him in a rugby league in Europe or in any of the big southern hemisphere leagues (South Africa, Aussie and NZ) and they will get destroyed and torn to pieces!
This is also common in the football (soccer) vs. American football debates-rugby is brought in as an example of a truly physical sport, usually used to cast American football in a negative light.
A few things are forgotten here:
1. Most of the contact you see in American football is illegal in rugby, which has far more stringent rules on how and where you can initiate contact. This is a big reason why you see more padding in one than the other.
2. American football players are, on average, significantly larger.
Most American football players would not make it in top-flight rugby. They simply lack the stamina. They are explosive (anaerobic) athletes and rugby is a more aerobic game. American football training focuses exclusively on enhancing short-burst/ anaerobic explosive ability. This yields players who can pack on alot of bulk/lean muscle and run very quickly over short distances (there is no other team sport with players
this quick over 100m), but all of this comes at the price of aerobic stamina. Your typical NFL player would probably look very slow and out of place on a competitive rugby pitch, though there'd be some exceptions to this.
On the flip side, most rugby players would also be "destroyed" or "torn to pieces" were they put into an NFL or elite NCAA American football competition. The things that make American football players poor fits for rugby (lack of stamina, bulk, etc) also yield significant advantages. These include greater explosive ability (useful in a game where anaerobic, short-burst explosion is all you use) and greater bulk/size/strength. These are the things rugby players would need to survive on an American football field, and they don't have them.
I dislike these debates because the reality is that all of these sports are great in their own right, and present unique challenges that may elude the other. I don't like when Americans talk disparagingly about football (soccer), but American games aren't totally unworthy of respect either.