A tie?!

[DanBlather]

@Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party

…not that impressive? 275 pounds is nineteen stone, or a stone and a half heavier than I am, and I’m nowhere near the heaviest player on the field, even at an amateur level, where you’re talking of players getting up to 23-25 stone. You’re talking about the weight of an average prop forward, maybe even under weighted. For comparison, Jonah Lomu was 6 foot 4, nineteen stone and a noted sprinter. He played on the wing, traditionally the position with one of the smallest players on the team.

Average weight for the NFL is 1 and a half stones more than for rugby, and there are 500 players > 21 stones .

ETA: biggest NFL player ever was over 29 stone and 6’6" tall.

[Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party]

Where are you getting this from? Can’t find a decent cite for either sport.

[Bam_Boo_Gut]

Maradonna is five foot four - football is a game of skill.

[Lobsang]

I’m a Brit and I can barely contain the massive amounts of apathy flooding my brain about the world cup.

I’ll start caring (a bit) if/when England get to the semi-finals.

[_Undecided_Adrian]

You just need to support a decent team
Germany - Australia 4-0 with a nice game, dominating in all areas.
Some of the best players were Miroslav Klose, 1.82m - 5 ft 11 (head goal), Lukas Podolski, 1.75m - 5 ft 9 and Philipp Lahm, 1.70m - 5 ft 7.
And if you can’t see that strategy is at play there, Sage Rat, I don’t know what to say.

[friedo]

@Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party

…not that impressive? 275 pounds is nineteen stone, or a stone and a half heavier than I am, and I’m nowhere near the heaviest player on the field, even at an amateur level, where you’re talking of players getting up to 23-25 stone. You’re talking about the weight of an average prop forward, maybe even under weighted. For comparison, Jonah Lomu was 6 foot 4, nineteen stone and a noted sprinter. He played on the wing, traditionally the position with one of the smallest players on the team.

Everybody stopped paying attention to you as soon as you said “stone.”

[Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party]

I thought Americans loved their antiquated weights and measures?

[Bryan_Ekers]

@Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party

I thought Americans loved their antiquated weights and measures?

Nah… they don’t give a dram.

[Jonathan_Chance]

@Bridget_Burke

I believe you. Is this a reason I should like American Football?

I don’t think anyone is making that argument. It was, actually, friedo that made the first slam on a sport upthread.

My argument is simply that there is no more violent sport on Earth than American Rules Football.

[friedo]

@Jonathan_Chance

My argument is simply that there is no more violent sport on Earth than American Rules Football.

You’ve obviously never seen a national Scrabble tournament.

[Bartman]

@Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party

I thought Americans loved their antiquated weights and measures?

Right. We love our antiquated weights and measures. Not some English antiquated weights and measures.

Stone is not an American unit of measure. It more or less faded away when we redefined the hundredweight to be 100 lbs. rather than the English standard of 112 lbs. After that stone was no longer evenly divisible into the hundredweight. And it along with the quarter and clove fell into disuse. I doubt 1 in 100 Americans could tell you what the weight of a stone is.

[Jonathan_Chance]

@friedo

You’ve obviously never seen a national Scrabble tournament.

No, but I did once see a Magic: The Gathering tournament on ESPN2.

[emcee2k]

@Jonathan_Chance

My argument is simply that there is no more violent sport on Earth than American Rules Football.

Really? More violent then boxing? A sport where two people just punch each other until one of them goes unconscious?

[OttoDaFe]

@friedo

@Jonathan_Chance

My argument is simply that there is no more violent sport on Earth than American Rules Football.

You’ve obviously never seen a national Scrabble tournament.

Or hurling. Irishmen with sticks running after each other . . . shudder

[Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party]

Shinty is the same. Shinty players have literally no teeth.

[Rune]

American Football is for pussies. Real men do football.

[ivan_astikov]

@emcee2k

Really? More violent then boxing? A sport where two people just punch each other until one of them goes unconscious?

Actually, there’s another guy in the ring with them who can intervene before it reaches that point.

[Ogre]

Not this stupid fucking football argument again. Why do morons have to derail threads with dumb horseshit?

[Sitnam]

@Cort

2. If, amidst all this throwing and catching, you have to stop for a rest every ten seconds like they do during the Superbowl, you have no right to call this weird activity a sport.

There are different kinds of fitness son, how far do you think Pele’s skinny legs could push a bull sled?

[ivan_astikov]

Why would Pele even want to push a bull sled? Couldn’t he just hire a bull to pull it?