# If a NFL player was transported back to ancient times, how well would he fare as a warrior? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 20, 2013, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-nfl-player-was-transported-back-to-ancient-times-how-well-would-he-fare-as-a-warrior/661483 "2013-06-20T17:00:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2013, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-nfl-player-was-transported-back-to-ancient-times-how-well-would-he-fare-as-a-warrior/661483/61 "2013-06-22T00:39:41Z")
> [@The Great Sun Jester](#): > > I suppose he could train up with the weapons & armor, but it would take a lot of time to retrain from “All out ambush & grapple with brief breaks between action” to “Ho! Ha ha! Guard! Turn! Parry! Dodge! Spin! Ha! Thrust!” You misspelled “Thpin”. ---
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2013, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-nfl-player-was-transported-back-to-ancient-times-how-well-would-he-fare-as-a-warrior/661483/62 "2013-06-22T00:46:13Z")
> [@Deeg](#): > > You guys seem to be seriously underestimating pro athletes. Indeed, which is precisely where your argument goes fundamentally pear-shaped. You have forgotten that the guys your LB are facing are also professional athletes … but they trained to fight/kill and face whomever the ringmaster pits against them, regardless of size, however armed and equally trained to fight/kill. There ain’t no rules in a knife fight and sudden death doesn’t end with a field goal. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2013, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-nfl-player-was-transported-back-to-ancient-times-how-well-would-he-fare-as-a-warrior/661483/63 "2013-06-22T01:36:44Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > You misspelled “Thpin”. What kind of quarterstaff do you have, anyway? ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2013, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-nfl-player-was-transported-back-to-ancient-times-how-well-would-he-fare-as-a-warrior/661483/64 "2013-06-22T02:00:45Z")
Buck and a quarter quarter staff, but I ain’t tellin _him_ that. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2013, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-nfl-player-was-transported-back-to-ancient-times-how-well-would-he-fare-as-a-warrior/661483/65 "2013-06-22T03:09:19Z")
> [@Lukeinva](#): > > The football player would crush. Today’s football players are bigger and stronger than players from just 20 years ago, and they’re exponentially bigger and stronger than the ancients. It wouldn’t even be a fair fight. This assumes ancient warfare was a one-on-one type of thing, which it was not. Warfare is won by armies, logistics, and methods, not by individual heroes. If your NFL player is in a phalanx that is generally inferior to the enemy phalanx, his phalanx will break, and he’ll die or have to run away, and that’s all there is to it. All this talk about their relative physical strength is a complete irrelevance. Some guys were strong, some weren’t. How they were led, armed and motivated was usually what won the day. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2013, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-nfl-player-was-transported-back-to-ancient-times-how-well-would-he-fare-as-a-warrior/661483/66 "2013-06-22T03:48:04Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > This assumes ancient warfare was a one-on-one type of thing, which it was not. > > Warfare is won by armies, logistics, and methods, not by individual heroes. If your NFL player is in a phalanx that is generally inferior to the enemy phalanx, his phalanx will break, and he’ll die or have to run away, and that’s all there is to it. > > All this talk about their relative physical strength is a complete irrelevance. Some guys were strong, some weren’t. How they were led, armed and motivated was usually what won the day. Fair enough. Put an entire NFL defensive or offensive line against your hypothetical Roman opponents. This is like algebra equation. You have to match one side to the other. Which one takes it assuming they are all willing to fight to the death? I think I hear some people saying that Roman Legionaries could match an equal number of NFL players. I call bullshit on that one. Those were small little Italian guys and NFL players are much bigger, faster, and stronger than you think. Primitive weapons don’t have that much to do with it. Any manly, man knows how to operate a knife or a rock let alone a rifle well enough so that it isn’t as large a difference as pure size and strength. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2013, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-nfl-player-was-transported-back-to-ancient-times-how-well-would-he-fare-as-a-warrior/661483/67 "2013-06-22T05:18:42Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > Fair enough. Put an entire NFL defensive or offensive line against your hypothetical Roman opponents. This is like algebra equation. You have to match one side to the other. Which one takes it assuming they are all willing to fight to the death? > > I think I hear some people saying that Roman Legionaries could match an equal number of NFL players. I call bullshit on that one. Those were small little Italian guys and NFL players are much bigger, faster, and stronger than you think. Primitive weapons don’t have that much to do with it. Any manly, man knows how to operate a knife or a rock let alone a rifle well enough so that it isn’t as large a difference as pure size and strength. Rome had the most disciplined and professional armed forces in the ancient world, not to mention the most brutal and relentless. They frequently put down larger men - Gauls, Germans, Iberians, Britons - who threw themselves against their shield lines, thinking that raw strength would be enough to break through the Roman lines. The NFL players would find themselves bombarded with pilum - the iron shafts designed to bend so they couldn’t be thrown back. Then if they survived that they would find themselves against the bosses of the scutum line while men who had spent endless hours practicing with wooden swords jabbed the gladius upwards through the ribcage. Livy tells us how the Romans dealt with big lads who opposed them - stab them in the belly and groin until they no longer opposed them. > [@](#): > > Then his comrades fastened on his armour; he took an infantry shield and a Spanish sword as better adapted for close fighting; thus armed and equipped they led him forward against the Gaul, who was exulting in his brute strength…They retired to their posts and the two armed champions were left alone in the midst, more after the manner of a scene on the stage than under the conditions of serious war, and to those who judged by appearances, by no means equally matched. The one was a creature of enormous bulk, resplendent in a many-coloured coat and wearing painted and gilded armour; the other a man of average height, and his arms, useful rather than ornamental, gave him quite an ordinary appearance… the Gaul, like a great overhanging mass, held out his shield on his left arm to meet his adversary’s blows and aimed a tremendous cut downwards with his sword. The Roman evaded the blow, and pushing aside the bottom of the Gaul’s shield with his own, he slipped under it close up to the Gaul, too near for him to get at him with his sword. Then turning the point of his blade upwards, he gave two rapid thrusts in succession and stabbed the Gaul in the belly and the groin, laying his enemy prostrate over a large extent of ground. [http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=Liv2His.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=51&division=div2](http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=Liv2His.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=51&division=div2) Livy also warns about underestimating the humble gladius; > [@](#): > > Philip’s men had been accustomed to fighting with Greeks and Illyrians and had only seen wounds inflicted by javelins and arrows and in rare instances by lances. But when they saw bodies dismembered with the Spanish sword, arms cut off from the shoulder, heads struck off from the trunk, bowels exposed and other horrible wounds, they recognised the style of weapon and the kind of man against whom they had to fight, and a shudder of horror ran through the ranks. > **[McAdams's Kennedy Assassination Home Page Index](https://www.jfk-assassination.net)** And those were Macedonians - no slouches themselves in the war department. The NFL members may be terrific athletes but with next to no combat experience or knowledge of battlefield formation a Roman legion would hack them to pieces without breaking a sweat. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2013, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-nfl-player-was-transported-back-to-ancient-times-how-well-would-he-fare-as-a-warrior/661483/68 "2013-06-22T14:13:31Z")
> [@The Great Sun Jester](#): > > Buck and a quarter quarter staff, but I ain’t tellin _him_ that. I see how he can win! Hooh! Hah! Guard! Turn! Parry! Dodge! Spin! Thrust! \ ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2013, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-nfl-player-was-transported-back-to-ancient-times-how-well-would-he-fare-as-a-warrior/661483/69 "2013-06-22T14:23:04Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > He will be dead in a week from some illness, disease or parasite from which he has no natural immunity. Actually, I’m curious if he might bring back some 21st-century microbe to which _he_ has immunity but which then wipes out ancient Greece or Rome. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2013, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-nfl-player-was-transported-back-to-ancient-times-how-well-would-he-fare-as-a-warrior/661483/70 "2013-06-22T15:09:55Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > Fair enough. Put an entire NFL defensive or offensive line against your hypothetical Roman opponents. This is like algebra equation. You have to match one side to the other. Which one takes it assuming they are all willing to fight to the death? > > I think I hear some people saying that Roman Legionaries could match an equal number of NFL players. I call bullshit on that one. Those were small little Italian guys and NFL players are much bigger, faster, and stronger than you think. Primitive weapons don’t have that much to do with it. Any manly, man knows how to operate a knife or a rock let alone a rifle well enough so that it isn’t as large a difference as pure size and strength. It doesn’t matter if they’re bigger, stronger and faster. You’re talking about people who have trained all their lives to do something versus people who have no training at all. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2013, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-nfl-player-was-transported-back-to-ancient-times-how-well-would-he-fare-as-a-warrior/661483/71 "2013-06-22T15:23:12Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Incidentally, I’ll recommend this book, _Legionary_, written as if it were an orientation manual for those just joining the Roman Army. Good stuff, and very interesting: [Amazon.com](http://www.amazon.com/Legionary-Roman-Soldiers-Unofficial-Manual/dp/0500251517/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1371852947&sr=8-2&keywords=legionary) This looks great, thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Belowjob2.0](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Belowjob2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Belowjob2.0)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2013, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-nfl-player-was-transported-back-to-ancient-times-how-well-would-he-fare-as-a-warrior/661483/72 "2013-06-22T15:39:23Z")
The superior size and strength of NFL players would give them an advantage in the melee combat that characterizes conflict in early agricultural societies, but not in the organized combat of more complex civilizations, like ancient Rome or ancient China. In places like northern Europe, sub Saharan Africa, and Polynesia, bigger and faster was better, and appears to have given the survivors of this type of combat a reproductive advantage. On the other hand, bigger and faster isn’t particularly beneficial for nomadic hunter gatherers. They were and are typically lean and shorter in stature. Perhaps because truly big men don’t do so well on long foot treks or long runs, and require more protein and carbs to keep alive. By the time you get to complex, hierarchical societies like ancient Rome and ancient China, the organization is way more important than the individual. Discipline, good strategy, training, all outweigh any individual physical advantage. In southern Africa, the Zulu made the transition from melee combat to an organized fighting force relatively recently, and established a formidable empire as a result. Now, the default assumption of some posters seems to be that NFL players would demonstrate less discipline or organization than Roman legions. In fact, NFL players are selected not just for their physical ability, but also for their ability to learn complex plays, execute them flawlessly, and follow the orders of their coaches to the letter. Undisciplined athletes generally can’t endure the intense practice regimes - 2 a days in the hot summer sun, and the regimented lifestyle. Not to mention the necessity of playing through pain. The headcases and lawbreakers get a lot of media attention, but great athletes who can’t follow rules are more likely to play basketball or see their football careers end prematurely. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2013, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-nfl-player-was-transported-back-to-ancient-times-how-well-would-he-fare-as-a-warrior/661483/73 "2013-06-22T16:16:03Z")
Ah, well there’s the discipline that athletes expect from their coaches and the discipline that an endlessly drilled legionary can expect from his centurion. Quoting from the book mentioned above (I have it on my knee right now, and heartily recommend it), if you make a balls-up in the Roman army punishments can range from; _Castigato_; a hard thwack with a _vitis_, a vine wood staff carried by centurions. _Aminadversio fustium_; A serious flogging carried out before the unit. _Fustuarium_; Beaten, kicked, flogged and stoning by the unit. Very popular soldiers may get away with being mauled for life. And there’s collective punishments; of which decimation is the harshest. In 18 A.D. III Augusta was subject to _decimatio_ by _fustuarium_ for fleeing from Numidians. > [@Tacitus](#): > > As soon as he touched on the mutiny and asked what had become of soldierly obedience, of the glory of ancient discipline, whither they had driven their tribunes and centurions, they all bared their bodies and taunted him with the scars of their wounds and the marks of the lash. > **[McAdams's Kennedy Assassination Home Page Index](https://www.jfk-assassination.net)** They train every single day to kill with the minimum of fuss, with weighted swords to strengthen the stabbing arm. Nor are they clumsy, they are expected to vault a pommel horse in full armour with gladius unsheathed. One other thing worth mentioning - our NFL players are the products of a free democracy, with the sensibilities of men born in the late 20th century. A stable society of law and order, crime and punishment. In World War II the gulf in combat effectiveness between the brutalised tyranny-born Wehrmacht and Red Army in comparison to the incredibly cautious soldiers of democracies was immense - and that was trained soldiers sent to fight Nazis. Untrained men against the most effective fighting force of the ancient world would be an even greater gulf - would an NFL player be really willing to kill with his own hands? Confucius he say, “To send the common people to war untrained is to throw them away.” ---
**Author:** ![Werekoala](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7993a0/32.png) [@Werekoala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Werekoala)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2013, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-nfl-player-was-transported-back-to-ancient-times-how-well-would-he-fare-as-a-warrior/661483/74 "2013-06-22T16:33:17Z")
Try this - how about a whole unit of offensive linemen? They’re already trained to work together as a wall-like unit. They are some of the biggest, strongest men to ever walk the Earth. They know how to adapt and shift their tactics on the fly with minimal instruction from the Quarterback (reading the defense). They’re among the smartest players on the field (really, look it up) and very quick to accept training and methods. They are already used to “fighting” in a style similar to the Roman wall formation - locking themselves together trying to prevent strong, fast individuals from overwhealming them). So, would a unit of NFL offensive linemen (enough to form a maniple, say), trained in shield and gladius techniques, fit the bill as an unstoppable force in the Roman world? ---
**Author:** ![Belowjob2.0](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Belowjob2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Belowjob2.0)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2013, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-nfl-player-was-transported-back-to-ancient-times-how-well-would-he-fare-as-a-warrior/661483/75 "2013-06-22T18:34:29Z")
> [@Mr.Kobayashi](#): > > Ah, well there’s the discipline that athletes expect from their coaches and the discipline that an endlessly drilled legionary can expect from his centurion. > > Quoting from the book mentioned above (I have it on my knee right now, and heartily recommend it), if you make a balls-up in the Roman army punishments can range from; > > _Castigato_; a hard thwack with a _vitis_, a vine wood staff carried by centurions. > _Aminadversio fustium_; A serious flogging carried out before the unit. > _Fustuarium_; Beaten, kicked, flogged and stoning by the unit. Very popular soldiers may get away with being mauled for life. > > And there’s collective punishments; of which decimation is the harshest. In 18 A.D. III Augusta was subject to _decimatio_ by _fustuarium_ for fleeing from Numidians. > [McAdams's Kennedy Assassination Home Page Index](http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/txt/ah/tacitus/tacitusannals01.html) > > They train every single day to kill with the minimum of fuss, with weighted swords to strengthen the stabbing arm. Nor are they clumsy, they are expected to vault a pommel horse in full armour with gladius unsheathed. > > One other thing worth mentioning - our NFL players are the products of a free democracy, with the sensibilities of men born in the late 20th century. A stable society of law and order, crime and punishment. In World War II the gulf in combat effectiveness between the brutalised tyranny-born Wehrmacht and Red Army in comparison to the incredibly cautious soldiers of democracies was immense - and that was trained soldiers sent to fight Nazis. Untrained men against the most effective fighting force of the ancient world would be an even greater gulf - would an NFL player be really willing to kill with his own hands? > > Confucius he say, “To send the common people to war untrained is to throw them away.” If we’re assuming the NFL players have no training in Roman combat, then there really isn’t a debate. Of course the Romans would tear the NFL players to pieces. It’s like asking how good athletes would perform in a sport they never played. Darrell Greene or Allan Iverson probably could have been world class soccer players if they’d starting training in their youth. As adults with no training, they’d have a hard time hold their own in a match against girls. \*A stable society of law and order, crime and punishment. \* Some the NFL players come from such a world, many don’t. I’m pretty sure the Norfolk housing projects Mike Vick grew up in were disorderly, violent places where there was only the loosest relationship between crime and punishment. \*the incredibly cautious soldiers of democracies was immense - and that was trained soldiers sent to fight Nazis. \* I see what you’re driving at. At the same time, NFL players are notably fearless, and aggressively put their physical safety at risk on every play. The physical damage some players sustain has been compared to that experienced in car crashes, and it unquestionably shortens their lifespans. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2013, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-nfl-player-was-transported-back-to-ancient-times-how-well-would-he-fare-as-a-warrior/661483/76 "2013-06-22T18:54:05Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > However, it is blatantly obvious when you round a corner and almost run into one just because of their overall size, proportions and level of muscle development. I am not small myself and I know it would be suicidal to get into a fight with one. I’ve met [Manu Tuiasosopo](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manu_Tuiasosopo), and that guy was freakin’ huge. When I shook his hand, his hand completely swallowed mine. I think I could have worn his Super Bowl rings as bracelets. Around 1990 or '91 I got to cook dinner for most of the Seattle Seahawks defensive line when they came to the restaurant where I worked, and again, they were _freakin’ immense_. > [@Lamia](#): > > I don’t know how things were done in ancient Rome, but in the Middle Ages boys could become pages at about the age of eight. This involved attending to a knight, helping with maintenance of armor and weapons, and beginning to learn combat skills. He could become a squire at 14 and, if he made the cut, a knight by his early 20s. By that time he would have been practicing his skills for over a decade. Keep in mind, though, that those boys becoming pages and squires weren’t peasants. Medieval knights were almost always nobles - they were the only ones who could afford a warhorse and all the requisite equipment in a time when soldiers had to provide their own equipment. Sons of nobles were typically fostered out to another noble family, where they served as pages and squires to the other noble house’s resident knight(s), and received the training they needed to eventually become knights themselves. The infantry in most medieval armies was typically made up of levies/conscripts drawn from the peasantry, poorly-armored and armed with farm implements. > [@penultima\_thule](#): > > They’d put him in a bearskin, give him a bloody great club or heavy battle axe and bill him as some Germanic Neanderthal from the Black Forrests. More likely, an African giant. Aren’t most modern linebackers African-American, or otherwise dark-skinned enough that they wouldn’t pass for “Germanic”? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2013, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-nfl-player-was-transported-back-to-ancient-times-how-well-would-he-fare-as-a-warrior/661483/77 "2013-06-22T19:07:04Z")
> [@Belowjob2.0](#): > > If we’re assuming the NFL players have no training in Roman combat, then there really isn’t a debate. Of course the Romans would tear the NFL players to pieces. It’s like asking how good athletes would perform in a sport they never played. Darrell Greene or Allan Iverson probably could have been world class soccer players if they’d starting training in their youth. As adults with no training, they’d have a hard time hold their own in a match against girls. Ah, good, we agree then - I was specifically trying to refute the idea that the sheer strength and endurance of the NFL members as well as their prior sporting experiences would be enough to triumph over a legion. If he has training, that evens the balance - although he’s still got a long way to catch up. Since a legionary’s service length is 20 years (and men often re-enroled) there are men in the legion with decades of fighting experience, as well as his world view ingrained from birth. > [@](#): > > \*A stable society of law and order, crime and punishment. \* > > Some the NFL players come from such a world, many don’t. I’m pretty sure the Norfolk housing projects Mike Vick grew up in were disorderly, violent places where there was only the loosest relationship between crime and punishment. That’s not to say that they’re somehow soft or decadent for this western sensibility (a point German propagandists used) - the WWII fighting man grew up in the Great Depression with its Hoovervilles and hardships, rather that we were unwilling to accept the kind of horrific losses and commonplace brutality of the Germans or Soviets (or in this case, Roman) due to the nature of the respective governments and societies. One brutal, authoritarian, for the state. The other liberal, democratic, individualistic. It is just as well otherwise the fighting would have been for naught. > [@](#): > > \*the incredibly cautious soldiers of democracies was immense - and that was trained soldiers sent to fight Nazis. \* > > I see what you’re driving at. At the same time, NFL players are notably fearless, and aggressively put their physical safety at risk on every play. The physical damage some players sustain has been compared to that experienced in car crashes, and it unquestionably shortens their lifespans. Yet at the same time he is a rational man knowing he is playing a sport, against civilised men not unlike himself who know it is a sport, with rules that govern it. He knows at any time he can quit and his life will go on. Compare that to the Roman world, it’s a universe apart. A Roman was born into a world of endless mysticism and Gods, where men killed each other for entertainment. Where slavery was commonplace. Where it was instinct to stab his enemies up through the ribcage then twist the blade, knowing if he shows fear and flees before men trying to kill him his countrymen will try and kill him. Can a man from one world really hope to compare to the man from the other? ---
**Author:** ![Belowjob2.0](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Belowjob2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Belowjob2.0)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2013, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-nfl-player-was-transported-back-to-ancient-times-how-well-would-he-fare-as-a-warrior/661483/78 "2013-06-22T19:19:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Yet at the same time he is a rational man knowing he is playing a sport, against civilised men not unlike himself who know it is a sport, with rules that govern it. He knows at any time he can quit and his life will go on. Compare that to the Roman world, it’s a universe apart. A Roman was born into a world of endless mysticism and Gods, where men killed each other for entertainment. Where slavery was commonplace. Where it was instinct to stab his enemies up through the ribcage then twist the blade, knowing if he shows fear and flees before men trying to kill him his countrymen will try and kill him. Can a man from one world really hope to compare to the man from the other? Unless the NFL player underwent a drastic change in mindset, no, they wouldn’t be competitive. On the other hand, the kill-or-be-killed, and life-and-death loyalty to the group you describe resembles some of our criminal subcultures in street gangs, and prisons. So, perhaps the NFL player would adjust to the new mindset, the way people adjust when they go to prison or join a gang. ---
**Author:** ![Vaevictis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f04885/32.png) [@Vaevictis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vaevictis)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2013, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-nfl-player-was-transported-back-to-ancient-times-how-well-would-he-fare-as-a-warrior/661483/79 "2013-06-22T20:21:08Z")
The NFL player’s physical advantages would not mean much because of his lack of psychological preparation for the horror of ancient hand to hand combat. If you are not raised in a culture that prepares you from youth to deal with that level of mental trauma, you are not going to be of much use on the battlefield. That is why Spartans trained warriors from age 7 and exposed them to killing via the krypteia from their teen years. That is why Greek and Roman culture was so militaristic in general. When you think about group bonding and cultural pressure to conform among hoplites, for example, it makes platitudes about “team spirit” seem like a joke. But that is what it takes to convince people to go out and get literally hacked to pieces. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2013, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-nfl-player-was-transported-back-to-ancient-times-how-well-would-he-fare-as-a-warrior/661483/80 "2013-06-22T21:03:00Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > Any manly, man knows how to operate a knife or a rock let alone a rifle well enough so that it isn’t as large a difference as pure size and strength. Bullshit. Fighting _in armour_ with dagger, sword and spear is _not_ something “every manly, man”[sic] knows. And a man _with_ those skills can take down any unprepared fool no matter how big and strong he is. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-nfl-player-was-transported-back-to-ancient-times-how-well-would-he-fare-as-a-warrior/661483.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-nfl-player-was-transported-back-to-ancient-times-how-well-would-he-fare-as-a-warrior/661483.md?page=5)