football/soccer whteva u wanna call it

MellowGAman said:
Well as an American that has played all of these sports competively at some point in my life I would rate these as the easiest to toughest in my personal opion and why:

Baseball: Not a whole lot of action here, I pitched and played several positions, I found it boring unless I was pitching or hitting. Just not for me.

Tennis: Love the sport, but not relatively difficult once you master the techniques.

Basketball: Same as tennis, just not intense enough for me.

Soccer: I was a Striker and Halfback, midfielder to some. I preferred midfielder due to the intensity of the constant movement. I had fantastic endurance when playing this sport, A great sport to play, tough to watch if you do not understand the complexity of the sport. watching the professionals from europe can be boring, because americans more "agressive" in the younger leagues, because we do not have the skill level of the rest of the world. But it is Very popular in the youth of america and will rise. My daughter who is 8 has been playing soccer since she was 2, this is rare for an american, she will be very good, she loves it.

Football: Is almost tied with soccer, in different terms, the hitting is certainly more intense, the pads and helmets were developed due to many deaths in the past. The men are bigger and stronger, and there is very complex plays that you can not understand if you never played the game. Football watching is boring for Europeans, simply the same reason Soccer is for Americans, we/they just do not understand the complexity of the sport. The Endurance is not the same, but the strength behind the sport is superior by a wide margin.

Ice hockey: By far the toughest sport on the planet, it takes the hitting, the endurance, the non stop action of all the sports combined, truly a fantastic workout and takes strength and skill. There is nothing tougher then re-directing a puck that was shot from the point and getting into the net. Hockey wins hands town as the toughest professional sport on the planet.

I agree with you a 100%
 
rugby is a lot more of a mans game to me.....no padding and who said rugby players are skinny lmao
 
MellowGAman said:
Well as an American that has played all of these sports competively at some point in my life I would rate these as the easiest to toughest in my personal opion and why:

Baseball: Not a whole lot of action here, I pitched and played several positions, I found it boring unless I was pitching or hitting. Just not for me.

Tennis: Love the sport, but not relatively difficult once you master the techniques.

Basketball: Same as tennis, just not intense enough for me.

Soccer: I was a Striker and Halfback, midfielder to some. I preferred midfielder due to the intensity of the constant movement. I had fantastic endurance when playing this sport, A great sport to play, tough to watch if you do not understand the complexity of the sport. watching the professionals from europe can be boring, because americans more "agressive" in the younger leagues, because we do not have the skill level of the rest of the world. But it is Very popular in the youth of america and will rise. My daughter who is 8 has been playing soccer since she was 2, this is rare for an american, she will be very good, she loves it.

Football: Is almost tied with soccer, in different terms, the hitting is certainly more intense, the pads and helmets were developed due to many deaths in the past. The men are bigger and stronger, and there is very complex plays that you can not understand if you never played the game. Football watching is boring for Europeans, simply the same reason Soccer is for Americans, we/they just do not understand the complexity of the sport. The Endurance is not the same, but the strength behind the sport is superior by a wide margin.

Ice hockey: By far the toughest sport on the planet, it takes the hitting, the endurance, the non stop action of all the sports combined, truly a fantastic workout and takes strength and skill. There is nothing tougher then re-directing a puck that was shot from the point and getting into the net. Hockey wins hands town as the toughest professional sport on the planet.

I agree as well. Few things to add.

As an American I love watching Soccer. World Cup this year I been keeping to date with it. I have never played it in my life, but it keeps you off your seat awaiting that first goal. Also, I really wouldn't wish you generalize us "americans" as if none of us enjoy/watch Soccer. Football is probably the most watched Sport in America based off the Super Bowl, just like Soccer is for your country. Take football over there and I'm sure you would have same results.

Football n' Rugby. There seperate sports, and each take there own skills to do. One thing to back up Football. You guys are mentioning well yeah they wear pads... equipment... blah blah. You know how much a full blown out football equipment weighs? I played through highschool, my helmet was anywhere from 20-30 lbs. Let alone the rest of everything can add up to 50-70 lbs by itself. Take the ordinary rugby player, add that to him, and see if he'll need a rest for just those few seconds.

rugby is a lot more of a mans game to me.....no padding and who said rugby players are skinny lmao

So is/was football until people were snapping their necks, and paralyzing themselves. Thus need for better equipment. Rugby-- They push, tackle, and stomp on eachother. I do that to my brother.

All sports are unique and competitive in their own way.
 
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I consider Baseball and American Football to be an American version of Cricket and Rugby respectively with few differences as the later ones are much older.
And both the American version of sports are safer than the original ones. In cricket, besides the wicket keeper, no one wears a glove. And fielders are placed much close to the Batsman in cricket than in Baseball. The ball is as hard and is bowled as fast or even faster with the fasted being recorded at 101 miles/hour. It much more technical. Besides every player does fielding unlike in Baseball. So you need to be overall more skilled to play Cricket than Baseball. This is quite clear in the number of players in each sports. 50 or more in Baseball players when only 11 are on the field at one time is quite ridiculous.
About Rugby, who says the players do not get hit hard? When the games ends, players are left with bruises, swollen face, bloody and broken eye socket and some with just half of their ears. The game is more violent with more physical contacts than American Football where the players are protected with their pads and helmet.

One thing I have realized is, American sports require more strength than skills. To play American football, you need to be big. Now if an obese guy weighing 300-350 pounds comes to me and says he is an athlete, I will laugh my ass off. But to accommodate the common American citizens, they have devised a suitable sport, I guess :) And same with Basketball, if you are not tall, you have a very slim chance of playing and being good at it. And let's not even talk about Baseball where the use of steroids is rampant.

Sports like Soccer, Cricket, Tennis, Badminton do not require you to be big and strong. You do not need to take steroids and spent half your day building muscles in the gym. You need to be skillful. You need to be more agile. Sort of you need to use more of your brain. So they are not that popular in America.
 
Pau, I'm not sure why you have such biases against American sports. There is no superiority here, only different.

Also, with football (not soccer), I'm not sure if anyone has taken the time to know this...and I guess you wouldn't if you're not into strength&conditioning levels of atheltes, but almost always your starting players are not stronger than your second string players. You do not need to be strong to throw a ball, you don't need to be strong to catch a ball, and you don't need to be strong to kick a ball. Yes, you need more strength than your average individual but it requires a lot more than just strength to play football. Not to mention the number of plays that you have to memorize and make last minute adjustments. Padding has progressed as the number of our guys were getting broken necks and becoming paralyzed...of course, most of that was due to being taught to 'hit with the head instead of the shoulder'.

Baseball I'm not really into but let's just say that the media has way outblown the whole steroids usage thing.
 
All this bashing..

I can't believe so many peeps are down on US sports and simply can't BELIEVE we are not more into soccer like the rest of the world. Well, simply put, a sport is popular not by what the world deems 'as a must' for popularity, but rather the media and history of the sport in the US.

We enjoy our American Football because almost every school in the nation had it as a sport when I was growing up and still does today. It wasn't like that for soccer in fact, our local schools STILL don't have a soccer team, but kids now play soccer alot around here in Church leagues and Boys club leagues and it's getting more popular.

The three nation wide American sports are Football, Baseball and Basketball. Hockey is regional, we have hardly any hockey down here in the south mainly due to it being too hot and costly to maintain a rink in the conditions. There were several years where even in the south you couldn't even find a hockey game on TV unless you had satallite. Since Dallas got a team a few years back more and more rinks are starting to pop up in larger cities, but still its not heavily viewed down here at all.

As far as American football not being Atheletic? Woah, what a misconception you have. Each position is a huge competion for the best player with the best statistics for that position. Yeah, there might be 350lbl linemen protecting the quarterback and he isn't about to keep up with a soccer player running all over a field. Does that make him not an athelete? But, I bet that 350lbl will sprint 40 yards in 4.9 - 5.1 seconds if not better. Try that at that weight! Here a quick stat for the number one draft this year for the NFL.

This is Mario Williams plays defensive end..

4.7-second speed in the 40-yard dash
a 40.5-inch vertical leap and 35 repetitions of the 225-pound bench press. Stands 6-7 and weighs 290 pounds.

Put yourself with a ball in your hands and you have someone that big and hitting you that fast and you think that pads are because they are wusses, no it's to keep you from getting killed while pleasing the spectators with hard hits.

Maybe you should watch this video and then show me any sport that has a collection similar and we can compair.
 
Ok. Watch this and you do the comparison. Hits with pads on and without pads on. I wonder which one is more hurtful. Hmmmmmmmm, let me guess...
 
The Difference is..

The difference is that you can watch 5 games of rugby and see one of those hits where you can watch 1 game of football and see 30 of those hits. That's the difference! And, it has nothing to do with who is tuffer like your prejudice (Living in the US) mind tends to convey, but rather the fact that the human body can't take that much punishment for very long.. no matter who or what nation you are from. Therefore, we pad ourselves, hit hard, more often, and bodies hold up longer.

I would say that is being smart.
 
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I like your statistics, 1 hits in 5 Rugby games, and 30 hits in 1 American Football game................
Sounds like self made one to fit your argument, just like the self made American idea of the rest of the world to fit its interest.
 
What really gets me pau1 is that you can't discuss anything without your prejudice anti-American slur.. it gets old bud. How about having a conversation talking about humans rather than nationalities. Personally I think your a joke and a disgrace to this forum which in general seems pretty laid back, non-racey and non-prejudice. For me, I am going to end this discussion on my half, because you insist on insulting nationalities rather than discuss any topic. Good day.
 
Totally agree. Paul1, your attitude sucks. Like Evo said, they are different sports with different skillsets. Put a rugby player in the NFL and he'll get creamed. Put a cricket player on a baseball field, and he'll be rubbish. Same the other way round.

For the record, cricket sucks (irrelevant maybe but, still true)
 
What is the importance of even bringing back this thread from apr 17... you've shown no important or lack of an actual argument other then your own personal views and one sided opinions.. Mod please lock this thread already.
 
Nehul said:
The american football players are really huge, but most of them are using steroids. The NFL lacks regular testing and the punishment is laughable. Three matches suspension!

Thats bull, they check all the time. I think your talking about Baseball. I hate it when people underestimate the athletic ability needed for Football (american). For football you need Speed, Power, Strength, and everything else. And the padding, believe me, doesn't make a difference. It actually allows others to hit each other harder. I read a article saying some 96 year old man played Rugby. wow that shows you how much athletisism you need for rugby....

Rugby is inferior to Football.
 
ChrisJG said:
Totally agree. Paul1, your attitude sucks. Like Evo said, they are different sports with different skillsets. Put a rugby player in the NFL and he'll get creamed. Put a cricket player on a baseball field, and he'll be rubbish. Same the other way round.

For the record, cricket sucks (irrelevant maybe but, still true)

Amen to that, and pau1 your a moron.
 
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I don't know why you guys are putting eachother down! All of you guys, even in defense.

No sport 'sucks' or is 'inferior' to another, do you know how rediculous that sounds? It takes different skills and qualities to play any sport. If you don't believe that go back a few years and remember when Michael Jordan tried to play baseball! It was absurd!

I loathe when people try to share their passion for a particular sport (usually foreign to the norm-depending on where you're from) and end up getting in fights with people because they become defensive or get attacked.

Basically, like it was mentioned earlier, a baseball player would suck at Soccer, a Soccer player would get creamed at American Football, A basketball Player wouldn't know what a wicket is much less know what to do with one etc, etc.

That's because they're pros of different sports...not better, just different...
 
Damn Brits

Most of you don't even have the slightest idea what you are talking about. I know from experience from years of competitive soccer and football, that football is more difficult. It is also more dangerous than rugby. The reason football players wear padding is because they are the biggest, fastest, and strongest men in the world, and they would kill each other if they didn't have equipment. Do you now how hard it is to keep your composure when 11 big men are running at you with only one goal in mind...to break you in half? By the way, there is MUCH more to football than running away from eachother and tackling the man in front of you.
 
vandy said:
Most of you don't even have the slightest idea what you are talking about. I know from experience from years of competitive soccer and football, that football is more difficult. It is also more dangerous than rugby. The reason football players wear padding is because they are the biggest, fastest, and strongest men in the world, and they would kill each other if they didn't have equipment. Do you now how hard it is to keep your composure when 11 big men are running at you with only one goal in mind...to break you in half? By the way, there is MUCH more to football than running away from eachother and tackling the man in front of you.


You are a true first class muppet.

To counter your argument, if you have 11 big men trying to break you in half, you have 11 making sure you dont get broken in half.

Equally as big as one another - cancels eachother out.

Plus rugby is a hell of a lot more violent - American football is short term burst for 10 seconds (at most) with 2 mins hanging around - rugby is more aggressive, continual and more physical - can you stamp on someones head legally in football? no chance.
 
Not having ever watched a full american football game, I'm not gonna slate it, all I'll say is they are big mofo's! and hit very hard by the looks of it...Rugby can be a brutal game as well due to no padding etc...
If you can ever understand crickets bl**dy rules you've done well lol. Football (soccer) is a very tactical game and the top players do make it look easier than it is, but at the end of the day all sports require different levels of abilities and fitness so you cant really say that a certain sport is better than the other, but you can say (and of this varies from person to person) That I/She/He finds a certain sport more exciting to watch...


P.s when is the superbowl next on, wouldn't mind seeing the top players in action?
 
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