The Bledsoe Cup is Fast Approaching!

[Headache in a Suitcase]

 

[Hewson]

Not as good as the Brady cup.

 

[Axver]

What a pansy.

 

[Tania]

I thought this was a rugby thread....

Yep, have to agree Axver - pansy's!!

 

[Axver]

I thought this was a rugby thread....

Yep, have to agree Axver - pansy's!!

I got my hopes up too.

Honestly, if you need to wear a cup (and a helmet, and twenty pillows and a mattress) to play football, piss off and go home to your Mummy. Leave football to real men such as rugby players.

 

[Se7en]

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

 

[timothius]

 

[speedracer]

Honestly, if you need to wear a cup (and a helmet, and twenty pillows and a mattress) to play football, piss off and go home to your Mummy. Leave football to real men such as rugby players.

Oh please. Rugby football isn't nearly as violent as it's made out to be.

Now Aussie football...

 

[timothius]

Oh please. Rugby football isn't nearly as violent as it's made out to be.

Now Aussie football...

I'll let Axver reply to that...

What a game for pussys.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

and i'm sure i could find countless pictures of bloodied athletes in american football, basketball and baseball.

rugby and aussie football is a rugged sport... don't get me wrong. but let's calm down with the whole american football is for pussies thing.

 

[Hewson]

And I'd like to see that bloody dude from the magazine attempt to run through the duo of Ted Washington and Warren Sapp, with or without pads.

 

[Tania]

I got my hopes up too.

Honestly, if you need to wear a cup (and a helmet, and twenty pillows and a mattress) to play football, piss off and go home to your Mummy. Leave football to real men such as rugby players. [/QUOTE

Exactly

Another five star quote Axver Keep up the good work!

 

[Tania]

and i'm sure i could find countless pictures of bloodied athletes in american football, basketball and baseball.

rugby and aussie football is a rugged sport... don't get me wrong. but let's calm down with the whole american football is for pussies thing.

They do wear nice pants

 

[GibsonGirl]

What's that thing going to protect? We all know that American football players have no balls.

(I jest, I jest!)

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

go root for the arganauts

 

[timothius]

And I'd like to see that bloody dude from the magazine attempt to run through the duo of Ted Washington and Warren Sapp, with or without pads.

If that is an attempt to say American Football is more or equally physical to rugby... then I suggest you try a new one.

I truly cannot see where any "immense" physicality comes from it. They are completely padded all over their body - amking it near impossible for any direct physical injury - furthermore there is no element of "physical depreciation" as the players generally play 4 "plays" and are then benched, in their padding.

Have you seen a ruck?

 

[blueeyedgirl]

Yeah, I've never understood gridiron, you've got like 100 players all just standing around and then, 20 get on the field and play for about 10 seconds before the game stops again.

With Aussie footy you've got 18, with 4 or so subs play full on for 20 minutes a quarter, no stopping.

AND theyre unpadded, so you may admire their fine physiques

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

If that is an attempt to say American Football is more or equally physical to rugby... then I suggest you try a new one.

I truly cannot see where any "immense" physicality comes from it. They are completely padded all over their body - amking it near impossible for any direct physical injury - furthermore there is no element of "physical depreciation" as the players generally play 4 "plays" and are then benched, in their padding.

Have you seen a ruck?

Curtis Williams, a former safety for the University of Washington, died in his sleep on Monday May 6 at the age of 24. His death was a result of complications of a devastating injury. While making a tackle in a game against Stanford during the 2000 season, Curtis sustained an injury to his spinal cord that left him paralyzed from his neck down. The Washington football team went on to dedicated its 2001 Rose Bowl win to their fallen teammate.

LOS ANGELES -- Former NFL defensive lineman Al Lucas died yesterday from a presumed spinal cord injury sustained while trying to make a tackle for the Los Angeles Avengers during an Arena Football League game, the team said.

tell their families that it's "near impossible for any direct physical injury."

have you seen a game?

tell it to joe theisman's shattered leg... to dennis byrd's shattered neck... to the families of countless high school and college players who get paralyzed every year... tell them that it's a pussy game where it's "near impossible for any direct physical injury."

again... let's slow down with the american football is for pussies line. if that's how you feel, you really have no friggin clue what you're talking about.

 

[timothius]

tell their families that it's "near impossible for any direct physical injury."

have you seen a game?

tell it to joe theisman's shattered leg... to dennis byrd's shattered neck... to the families of countless high school and college players who get paralyzed every year... tell them that it's a pussy game where it's "near impossible for any direct physical injury."

again... let's slow down with the american football is for pussies line. if that's how you feel, you really have no friggin clue what you're talking about.

I have seen a handful of games maybe 10 or so incomplete, I tend to watch Superbowls. Again you can pull out tragic and extreme examples to say any sport is more physically intense - for example Soccer has had multiple players die on the field.

Overall, without looking at extreme cases from either sport, overall Rugby is the significantly more physical sport in all areas. It is more physical, played without over-protective padding, without needless rest breaks and played for significantly longer seasons.

I don't quite know where you think I'm spitting out the "Gridiron is for pussies" line? I never said that. But I will concede there is a considerable disparity in the general physicality level in each.

 

[randhail]

I have seen a handful of games maybe 10 or so incomplete, I tend to watch Superbowls. Again you can pull out tragic and extreme examples to say any sport is more physically intense - for example Soccer has had multiple players die on the field.

Overall, without looking at extreme cases from either sport, overall Rugby is the significantly more physical sport in all areas. It is more physical, played without over-protective padding, without needless rest breaks and played for significantly longer seasons.

I don't quite know where you think I'm spitting out the "Gridiron is for pussies" line? I never said that. But I will concede there is a considerable disparity in the general physicality level in each.

Maybe you should run a pattern across the middle in the "full overprotective padding" and have Rodney Harrison blindside you. Let us know if you still think the padding is unnecessary.

Maybe ask Steve Young about all his concussions or Willis McGahee about blowing out his knee or Drew Bledsoe about his collapsed lung.

 

[Axver]

Oh please. Rugby football isn't nearly as violent as it's made out to be.

Now Aussie football...

In Aussie Rules, the ball controls the men; in rugby, the men control the ball.

And regarding violence, I present to you the example of New Zealand international Wayne 'Buck' Shelford, a man if there ever was one:

It was during only his second test for the All Blacks that he suffered a ripped scrotum after being rucked by a French player, which left one testicle hanging free. He also lost four teeth during the ruck. After discovering the injury to his scrotum, he calmly asked the physio to stitch up the tear and returned to the field and played out the rest of the game.

I bet the pansy American footballers - if they played without their cups - would be lying on the ground waiting for the ambulance to take them to hospital.

If you put any American footballer in a rugby scrum or maul, he'd have a bloody heart attack. Wouldn't come out alive from a rolling maul. And certainly wouldn't be able to endure a full eighty minutes of rugby, especially if playing in the forward pack.

I am more than willing to argue that the physically most demanding and toughest sport is rugby, especially for those who play in the forwards. It's like trench warfare down there sometimes. You have to be built like a tank and have the physical strength of a freaking elephant to be a successful forward.

And our fifteen players don't get a break to have a breather every five seconds. Oh, and while I'm at it, our kickers actually have talent, our conversions can be taken from the sideline (should that be in line with where the try was scored), and our drop goals are actually spontaneous. Oh, and our kickers have to be fully capable of offensive and defensive play too, they don't get to go off once they've slotted through a conversion. And the rest of our players have to have the ability to offend and defend too - what a remarkable concept, having the skills to do more than one thing!

That's enough for now. Can you tell I don't like rugby's bastard cousin?

 

[Axver]

Maybe you should run a pattern across the middle in the "full overprotective padding" and have Rodney Harrison blindside you. Let us know if you still think the padding is unnecessary.

Maybe ask Steve Young about all his concussions or Willis McGahee about blowing out his knee or Drew Bledsoe about his collapsed lung.

Ask Australia about the fact half of their rugby team's starting line-up is currently unavailable due to injuries of various descriptions.

Ask England's Will Carling or Mike Catt about being steamrollered by Jonah Lomu in the 1995 World Cup semi-final. The remarkable thing is no-one called for padding after that ...

 

[randhail]

whatever, i'm not going to get into a pissing match over rugby. You can ave your fun. I'll take my tailgating, NFL, and NCAA games over rugby anyday.

The idea of hearing about a guys scrotum getting ripped doesn't exactly excite me. Afterall, what does it say about rugby players if they like grabbing another man's junk?

 

[DaveC]

You people have no idea why pads are necessary. If I may recite to you a brief history of football:

In the early days of the game, it was common for university teams to create what was called "mass plays" to force the ball forward. In many cases, it was found that a huge wedge with the ball carrier in the middle of the wedge was the most effective formation. The men would line up in a V formation with the ball carrier in the center, line up 15 to 20 yards behind the line of scrimmage, link arms, and run full blast at the defensive line in an attempt to plow through the line at maximum impact, breaking through the line and allowing the ball carrier to run to the end zone.

The wedge was damn near impossible to stop for years. So, defensive players got creative. They would clothesline the front man in the wedge. They would form lines of their own to try to plow headlong into the wedge. In many cases, the best defense was for a particularly agile defender to sprint at the wedge, then try to leap over the front man and drive his cleats into the chest of the ball carrier in mid-air.

This was all done without pads.

It got so violent that every week newspapers would have "Injury Reports" in the sports sections devoted entirely to football injuries. The injuries from one single game in 1907 included 6 broken hands, 4 broken arms, 3 broken collarbones, 1 cracked skull, 2 broken ribs, and countless broken noses and jaws and appendages, along with multitudes of sprains, bruises, abrasions, contusions, gashes, and hyperextensions. Until 1918 it was actually legal to slug an opposing player in the face with a closed fist three times in the same play before it could be considered a foul.

Eighteen men were killed in 1905 alone. 33 players were killed in 1908. President Theodore Roosevelt threatened to ban the game entirely unless reforms were made. In 1910, interlocking plays were banned and the number of deaths were reduced. Mass plays were banned in 1912 and tinkerings were made to further reduce danger to the players.

So, football players wear pads because the game got so lethal and violent that it nearly got banned. Pussies, hm?

And it's not a whole lot less violent now...you run across the flats at full speed, catch a bullet pass that actually imprints on your hand, only to run full blast into a 270-pound linebacker who is also coming at you full-tilt with the sole intention of crushing you as hard as possible, and I'd like to see you call a football player a pussy then.

This is the Rutgers 1882 football team, wearing their on-field uniforms, as well as the absolutely massive pads of the time:

 

[timothius]

whatever, i'm not going to get into a pissing match over rugby. You can ave your fun. I'll take my tailgating, NFL, and NCAA games over rugby anyday.

The idea of hearing about a guys scrotum getting ripped doesn't exactly excite me. Afterall, what does it say about rugby players if they like grabbing another man's junk?

Likewise, we, and a majority of the world will take our Rugby and enjoy that.

Also the fact that the quote states that his scrotum was ripped during some "ferocius rucking" and you believe that somone grabbed his junk... does prove som ignorance to what rugby is... no offence.

 

[timothius]

Maybe you should run a pattern across the middle in the "full overprotective padding" and have Rodney Harrison blindside you. Let us know if you still think the padding is unnecessary.

Maybe ask Steve Young about all his concussions or Willis McGahee about blowing out his knee or Drew Bledsoe about his collapsed lung.

It may be helpful but hardly neccessary... being tackled without protective padding occours roughly 400 times a game, without breaks. I would ask you to be tackled & rucked 35 times a game and see how you deal with it. Even with padding!

Sure, I will ask them.

Then you ask Colin "Pinetree" Meads about playing 75 minutes with a Broken Arm, Jonah Lomu about playing a seson with life-threatening kidney problems, ask the 15 All Blacks who played the 1995 World Cup Final while suffering from food-poisioning that resulted in their hospitalisation afterwards... I can go on and on and on :rollleyes:

Roughly how many minutes would a NFL player play per game - on the field roughly.. I'm curious.

 

[beli]

I dont understand this thread

I know the Bledsoe Cup is a rugby competition but is it something else too? Something in the USA?

:easilyconfused:

 

[yertle-the-turtle]

The Bledisloe Cup refers to the annual match between Australia and New Zealand in the year's Tri-Nations.

Drew Bledsoe, from what I understand, is the bloke in the picture that Headache posted. He plays American Football. He was making what we like to call in these parts a 'clever pun', of which some have taken umbrage because they fail to see the joke.

Anyway this argument is ridiculous. I don't actually want to see people get injured while watching/playing sport. Arguing that sport A is more dangerous than sport B serves no purpose. I like rugby more than American Football because I think it's infinitely more interesting, not because more people die playing it. End of.

 

[beli]

He was making what we like to call in these parts a 'clever pun', of which some have taken umbrage because they fail to see the joke.

Ah, I didn't get the "clever pun" either. I didnt know who it was in the pic. I presumed it was a rugby thread.

PS Yertle when do you start your military service? We have a new guy in our office who spent 20 years in the Singapore Air Force.