Do you think that American football players, so used to wearing all their protective gear, could handle Rugby or Aussie Rules football?
by 
EvangelineOFire
ANSWERS: 11
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Yes (with all their protective gear still on :P )
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Yeah I am sure they can... but I think they would need to do an awful lot of work to get their fitness, tacking and hand-eye coordination up to scratch. I have heard that some American football coaches actually have the team play a season of rugby to help them improve their game and build their fitness/co-ordination etc. .... Then we have the issue of the padding! I wonder if they could cope getting thrown around without it, and wonder if they would play on when their ears are ripped up and pouring blood like the rugby guys?!
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I doubt it. I don't think Rugby has room for people who aren't in shape but just huge enough to knock another guy down. I think American football is the only mainstream game that encourages obesity for some of its players.
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What about the South African "Springbok" rugby players? I think they are the top of pops at the moment, if I'm not wrong....
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Of course. LOL!
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Yes, a lot of high school American football players play intramural/club rugby in college as most colleges lack a non-varsity football club due to equipment expenses among other thing. Many former American football players find it hard to leave behind the competive nature football allowed them and go on to do similar contact sports such as rugby, lacrosse, sumo wrestling, etc.
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They did a study on how hard football and rugby players hit. And an American football player(wearing pads) hit 3 times harder than a rugby player. Football players also must have significantly better hand eye coordination because footballs move faster, and the helmet blocks the field of vision. Football players also have higher stamina due to the fact that they run just as fast if not faster and further than rugby players while wearing heavy padding. The only question I have is without padding would they still hit as hard and be able to take as hard a hit? I think they would, but it would be fun to find out.
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Some of the guys are massive, but being that big doesn't mean that they are out of shape. They have to take fitness tests each year and they run to keep up cardio. That said, the offensive linemen would have a hard time with the pace of rugby, but the 'skill' players would not. The skill set needed for rugby seems to be a hybrid between football and soccer, so it would be an easy transition as far as fitness levels go, but difficult as far as strategy goes. I'd take a bunch of linebackers, defensive ends, corners, safeties, tight ends, tailbacks, and fullbacks as a rugby team any day, and maybe even some defensive linemen. Quarterbacks, most wide receivers, and offensive linemen aren't really built for that game, the o-linemen are too big, not necessarily out of shape, but just massive and quarterbacks and wide receivers aren't generally large enough and most would be too tall, because from what I've seen a shorter strong build with quickness and speed are desired (please correct me if I'm wrong).
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Just imho, @#$% No! ;-)
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Sure they could....if you PAY them enough. Makes you wonder why its called a game.....
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WOW! I just remembered something. A few years ago there was a dutch guy that played rugby in australia for years and went to america to play AF. The first season nobody could tackle the guy cause he would just jump over the slow fatso's. He was by far the fastest guy on the field. If I'm correct he wanted to play the first few matches without a helm because he found it annoying. So, I have to say that rugby players are more tough, more agile and faster. Especially if you put in a AF-defence-team, they would be overrun by the rugby players.
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