There seems to be an eternal battle between England's rugby and America's American football – or just football depending on where you are from. Who are the toughest, the NFL (National Football League) players or the rugby players, and who would be best at the other players game? The two games have a similar base and are both originally from England. If you like both sports you can make it even more fun for yourself by checking out where you for instance can bet on NFL games here https://www.wsn.com/nfl/where-bet-nfl-legally/. Often you hear people saying, if rugby isn't just American football without the pads. If you are interested in the similarities and differences between the two sports then keep on reading.
The Similarities
According to Wikipedia, both games originated in England. As a matter of fact, they both originate from the english rugby football from the nineteenth Century England. Both games are played with a pretty similar ball, approximately the same size, in the shape of a prolate spheroid. The field in which the game is played is also somewhat similar and both games consist of relatively big players size wise. Both rugby and American football are games with intense physical aggression where players have to have a certain speed level to compete.
The Differences
The differences in the games have come to grow since the original rugby football from nineteenth Century England. First of all, a rugby game consists of fifteen players on the field whereas there are eleven players on the field in American football. A big difference is also the amount of protective gear. Where rugby players are taught to tackle with personal safety in mind, hard tackles are allowed in American football. This means that padding is especially necessary in American football where the players wear a helmet, shoulder/chest pad, upper leg padding and a mouthguard. In rugby, only a mouthguard is required, and players are only allowed to wear modest padding on places such as the head and collarbone. Of course another huge difference between the two sports is the game rules. For starters a rugby game consists of two forty-minute halves with only few short breaks, whereas American football is played with four fifteen-minute quarters and a much more massive amount of small breaks during the game.
The Leagues
American football centers around one league, being the NFL. Rugby on the other hand has many different leagues. The major tournaments are the NFL Playoffs and the Rugby World Cup respectively. When looking at the professional leagues, it is clear to see that there is way more money in the NFL than there is in the world of professional rugby. There is a huge amount of money running in the NFL and the top NFL players earn an astounding amount of money compared to the top rugby players. The many arguments about which sport is the toughest will probably never end. Both sports are great fun to watch, so pick your favorite or go nuts with them both.
