NFL 2015 Thread

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I don't really understand American football, but after watching a weekend if Six Nations rugby, I'm not that impressed with the super bowl. There is about a second of action, then a long break with loads of posturing and posing around by the players? Nobody seems to know how to tackle and there have been more big hits in about one phase of rugby union? Am I missing something here?

The long breaks are necessary, as it is the time for calling plays both on offense and on defense. I compare it to the lulls in the action in baseball.... and it's a lot more exciting for me. I've seen rugby and although there are less breaks in the action, it all seems to be a little helter-skelter, with no strategy or play-calling.... just non-stop running around. Different strokes, I guess.

True. They are actually very different games aren't they.

NFL looks to me like every player is a specialist in one particular thing only. That means that there skill set won't be very wide but they will be pretty damn excellent at the thing they do. They also probably don't need a lot of stamina as the plays seem short and very explosive, so the physique is different from rugby players. I don't think the hits are that hard, plus they have lots of padding - but hardly any of the players tackle properly, they just launch themselves at each other.

Rugby is very different. I take your point about it looking helter skelter, but there is quite a lot of tactics and strategy. It's harder to carry out that strategy when the play is more or less continuous, so the very best teams and players are those who can keep a clear head and follow their game plan under great pressure.