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Why Isn't Rugby More Popular In the States?

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I realize that football is the dominant contact sport in America, but rugby is so in the shadows I can't believe it. Why do you think this is?
 
because two contact sports can't exist simultaneously.

there is no money in rugby. there are no college scholarships in rugby. therefore, no one encourages anyone at a young age to play. it is the fall back sport for many ex-footballers (gridiron).
 
I also think americans tend to like their home made sports more too.

You know, basketball, baseball, Football.

I know Football was basically rugby for a while untill they changed the rules, but they changed it rather drastically.

I think footy (* the European kind*) is probably the only non american game they like even marginally as much as their own sports.
 
The evolution of American Football from Rugby happened a bit more subtley than you'd imagine (I had to take The History of Football for my minor in Physical Education). Scrum caps became mandatory (which evolved into helmets), they added the forward pass, and the rest is just a bunch of added rules. They took away the act of touching the ball down to score a "Touch Down."
 
The evolution of American Football from Rugby happened a bit more subtley than you'd imagine (I had to take The History of Football for my minor in Physical Education). Scrum caps became mandatory (which evolved into helmets), they added the forward pass, and the rest is just a bunch of added rules. They took away the act of touching the ball down to score a "Touch Down."
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That doesn't sound like too subtle an evolution if you ask me :)

But i always found that term quite ironic:
Why is it called a "touchdown" when you don't even touch the ball down?

I used to ponder over the quesiton, but then i'd give up shaking my head and muttering, "Bloody Americans."
:huh:
 
Compared to rugby, American football, like every other sport in America that they love so much, is largely over-rated and there is actually so little playing time involved.

American football bored me to tears, and the ONLY way to make it watchable is to hype the damn thing up so much.

Player intelligence on their football is also severely questioned. Michael Vick is a really good player because he runs with the football occassionally, WOOT?

They can't multi-task for the life of them. They can only follow what the coach says. Defensive team, Offensive team, special team... how many people actually plays this game?

Over-hyped. Terrell Owens typifies the American football player.
 
hmm they hype up awesome players to play their awesome game and then take it to hollywood to make an awesome movie...ha!
 
I also think americans tend to like their home made sports more too.

You know, basketball, baseball, Football.[/b]

The four major American sports are basketball, baseball, football and (ice) hockey. Three of the four were invented in Canada or by Canadians. The exception is baseball. So Americans don't have a problem accepting other countries sports as their own, the only problem is money and where to spend it. You see Americans have so much disposable cash they don't know what to do with it. Thankfully advertisers help them and they happily oblige on useless, useless crap. Now these major sports were around with pro or semi-pro leagues when the market really started to boom. With television being the major new medium to bring their game to millions of homes which has resulted in billions in advertising revenue. Now if you look at the NFL, they have a $4 billion dollar TV deal with various networks and cable companies, NASCAR is soon to exceed that, the NBA and MLB are trailing but not that far behind. With that shear amount of revenue coming in guess how much exposure nationally they receive on a regular basis and how much they can spend on advertising? We're talking huge sums of money. The NFL makes more in a year than the IRB makes in two or three World Cups. It's not the quality of the game or the narrow mindedness of the USA(although it they are) it's the simple fact that football and the rest of the major North American sports get so much exposure and there is a big zero for rugby.
 
Compared to rugby, American football, like every other sport in America that they love so much, is largely over-rated and there is actually so little playing time involved.

American football bored me to tears, and the ONLY way to make it watchable is to hype the damn thing up so much.

Player intelligence on their football is also severely questioned. Michael Vick is a really good player because he runs with the football occassionally, WOOT?

They can't multi-task for the life of them. They can only follow what the coach says. Defensive team, Offensive team, special team... how many people actually plays this game?

Over-hyped. Terrell Owens typifies the American football player.
[/b]
Even offensively and defensively you have 1st down linemen and 3rd and short linemen. It's so broken up, very few players play a full on game. In Junior High and High School you'd hear of the rare "iron man" who played both positions. By the time you get to college, that concept is unmentionable. It's so position specific, the coaches might as well just be playing chess.

This is why I switched my affection to Rugby.
 
me, personally i care for the college version of our football, so much more passion and not all that dancing **** they do in the nfl.. anyways back to the rugby topic, well the main reason is a. the usa rugby has done **** really in order to promote the game b. no money in it c. it just became professional.. plus the americans seem to have a bias towards sports which are not our own
 
However, we did embrace Pog, and that came from Japan or Canada, right?
shirts_1994-pogs-champion.gif
 
because two contact sports can't exist simultaneously.

[/b]
Yeah, I mean just look at Australia... There's only 1, no... 2 ... no, wait, 3 contact sports that are highly popular :blink: AFL, Rugby League and Rugby Union.
What were you saying again? :D

Me personally, I always wondered why the Germans never got into rugby. The game is all about power, creativity and efficiency! You'd think it'd be right up their alley.
 
Compared to rugby, American football, like every other sport in America that they love so much, is largely over-rated and there is actually so little playing time involved.

American football bored me to tears, and the ONLY way to make it watchable is to hype the damn thing up so much.

Player intelligence on their football is also severely questioned. Michael Vick is a really good player because he runs with the football occassionally, WOOT?

They can't multi-task for the life of them. They can only follow what the coach says. Defensive team, Offensive team, special team... how many people actually plays this game?

Over-hyped. Terrell Owens typifies the American football player.
[/b]
Shows what you know about Football, only 13 year old noobs who only watch ESPN and played Madden 2004 think Vick is a good player.
 
<div class='quotemain'>
Compared to rugby, American football, like every other sport in America that they love so much, is largely over-rated and there is actually so little playing time involved.

American football bored me to tears, and the ONLY way to make it watchable is to hype the damn thing up so much.

Player intelligence on their football is also severely questioned. Michael Vick is a really good player because he runs with the football occassionally, WOOT?

They can't multi-task for the life of them. They can only follow what the coach says. Defensive team, Offensive team, special team... how many people actually plays this game?

Over-hyped. Terrell Owens typifies the American football player.
[/b]
Shows what you know about Football, only 13 year old noobs who only watch ESPN and played Madden 2004 think Vick is a good player.
[/b][/quote]

Right, but once you become a 17 year old noob who only watches ESPN and plays Madden 2007 you stop thinking that? :p
 
i've also noticed that the americans are not very keen on playing other collectiv sports than the ones they've invented ... look at soccer or rugby ... and rugby is too tough for them !!! :) take a football player without his armor and put him on a rugby field :) ...
 
and rugby is too tough for them !!! :) take a football player without his armor and put him on a rugby field :) ...
[/b]

awww i wudn't say just because they wear pads make them soft. i mean like look at players like Ray Lewis, he's one freaky az ****a. he'd kill any prop or loose forward that runs into him.
but yea it does seem like americans only watch their own boring az sports.. i don't kno wut it is about football, it's sooo boring to watch. how long is each quarter? like 12 or 15 mins right? so thats 60 mins worth of football but somehow a game drags on for like 3 hours!!!! wut da hell is up with that?
basketball is ok, baseball is ok too but wut is up with the "world series"??? it's not like it's a world cup, how many other countries play for it?
 
1 : japan ...
i don't say some of the football player are not monsters, but in comparison to rugby, i think football is quite a **** sport :) even if i would be quite damged playing that sport !!! but the main thing is i don't like that sport as it is too broken up for me, stopping every 30 seconds ... why do nobody on this planet play those sports (i mean they have a professional league with many fans like rugby or soccer in our countries) ???... certainly 'cause its rather uninteresting (except for basketball and ice hockey) ...
 
yeah american football is so whack how it stops every 10 seconds.. what da heck? no wonder their all going obese!
 

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