Sep 10 2007
American Football Is a Rough Game
So I was watching the beginning of the Geelong Cats v. Kangaroos Finals match, and as they were showing replays of a pregame shoving match between the teams, the announcer compared it to a fight that broke out before an NFL game a couple of years ago. He actually wasn’t talking about Joey Porter and William Green, but he did take a minute to suggest the NFL was a bit more violent, and threw in this crack: “As most things in America are.”
I don’t like to think about how right he is, but it does serve as a gentle reminder that American football is still the most violent of all modern football codes. Players throw their bodies around on the field with abandon, and as the first week of the NFL season once again showed us, some of them have trouble getting up.
I wish nothing but the best for Kevin Everett, the Buffalo Bills tight end who suffered what may be permanent paralysis in Sunday’s game against the Denver Broncos. He probably wasn’t thinking about the possibility that he might suffer spinal cord injuries when he went to make that tackle. He just went for it like any other NFL player would, and this is the price he may have to pay for it.
Thankfully, we don’t see injuries this serious very often in the NFL. The most infamous one I can remember recently was Mike Utley’s injury 16 years ago. He famously gave the Detroit Lions faithful a thumbs up symbol as he was carted off the field, but he was left paralyzed below his chest. He’s done what he’s can to move on with his life, though. Here’s hoping Kevin Everett does the same.
Let’s not forget, folks, that these injuries would happen a lot more often if they played without the pads and helmets. If American football didn’t have these things, it would be considered far more savage than, say, mixed martial arts, and as a result, it might be outlawed — and let’s not forget that this almost happened a century ago. The padding is there for a reason, folks. What a shame that it wasn’t enough to prevent the spinal cord injuries Everett and Utley suffered on the field.
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That’s why I hate all the arguing about which Football players are toughest. As a guy who follows NFL and Aussie Rules closely and watches Rugby from a far I know that they are all dangerous in their own right. Watching England Vs the US, Geelong Vs The Kangaroos or Washington Vs Miami this weekend I saw a lot of big tough guys out there who all play their sport very well.
Exactly. I think I’ve mentioned it on this blog before, but a great description I heard was that while Rugby and Aussie rules (along with others, I’m sure) are CONTACT sports, with no disprespect meant to any of those codes or the painful injuries their players are subject to, American and Canadian football are COLLISION sports. In no other code that I know of does every single attempt to move the ball towards the goal involve men sprinting at full speed DIRECTLY towards each other desperately fighting to take or avoid conceding every single yard (due to the “first down” concept). Basically, the pads are necessary to get gridiron to be not so much more dangerous than rugby that the game is banned.
Also, the frequency of the forward pass means you commonly have players whose attention is not at all focused on the men sprinting toward them to drive them backwards or to the ground, and they also may be fully extending their bodies or even leaping, completely unable to brace themselves for impact. Perhaps this happens with long-range kicks in rugby or with marks in Aussie rules, but it’s not common enough for the powers-that-be to mandate padding and helmets.
Basically, it’s like Tony said: it has nothing to do with the relative toughness of the players, but with the differing dynamics of the games.
“The average NFL career lasts only 3.8 years[3]”
From Wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Issues_in_American_football#_note-2
Can anyone confirm this?
I’ve played both games American rules and Australian rules at university in both countries.
Although American football had more contact than Australian rules I found Australian rules tougher and harder than American football. The fitness level of most Australian footballers would easily put them in the top 1% of American footballers. In American football you can see your opponent 99% of the time but in Australian football with blind turns, twists and running backwards with your eyes on the ball its down to around 80%.