Sure, we have dozens of modern variations on the game of football, but it’s become almost impossible to get people to play anything other than the most popular football codes in their home country. Thankfully, this hasn’t stopped people from trying.
Case in point: Scuffleball. Apparently, some guy from West Virginia thought it might be fun to create a variation of rugby which featured an instant scrum-like contest — or a “scuffle” (natch!) — after every tackle and legal forward passes that were still live if they hit the ground. At least, I think those are some of the rules, but I can’t say for certain, since the Official Scuffleball Rules & Regulations page has more dead links than a sausage factory.
According to the web site, the “National Scuffleball Association” — and I would venture to guess that this is a one-man association — is looking to organize test matches in Tampa, FL, and Waco, TX. Whether anyone has actually shown an interest in this remains to be seen.
I know for a fact that this fellow West Virginia native has an uphill battle in getting anyone to notice his football code. I, too, took a shot at creating a new football code, and nobody but Lionel Messi wanted to play. On the other hand, the word “Scuffleball” does appear in Wikipedia, so I guess that’s a start.
(What? Yes, I was born in West Virginia — Fairmont, to be exact. Why do you think I’m such a huge Steelers fan? All the local stations on cable were Pittsburgh stations.)
2 responses so far ↓
1 Ronald Dale..... // Sep 12, 2007 at 6:37 pm
Maybe that guy should hook up with his local USAFL Aussie Rules club, I think he would find that is not so far from what he is trying to put together.
2 Dave // Sep 12, 2007 at 7:16 pm
Somehow, I don’t think Evans, West Virginia has a local USAFL club.