American Football

Two relevent quotes, but I don't know by whom.


"Soccer is a gentleman's game, played by hooligans...Rugby is a hooligan's game played by gentlemen."


"I once went to a fight, and a game of ice hockey broke out."

 

The first thing is certainly true. The last thing, well, I've never witnessed any rugby games but I can't really imagine the players as gentlemen...

:lol:

 

The differnce is in the attitude -
Footballers get really arsey if somebody gives them a hard time on pitch, whereas if you punch a rugby player during a match he will buy you a drink and compliment you on the power of your punch.

 

That's not that much different from the American "football". If you spit at, kick or low-blow your opponent without getting caught (a.k.a. the Raiders or Broncos), they call it "smart" football. If you are caught, then you are being branded as a coward. Like they say, you ain't trying if you ain't cheating.

 

If you mean kicking and throwing an object, yes if you mean the game of american football no.

I have to disagree with you on that one,


HISTORY OF AMERICAN FOOTBALL


Football historians, those who have studied the game and its origins, place the game’s beginnings in rugby, an English game played with many similarities to football. Rugby began in eighteen twenty-three at the famous Rugby Boys’ School in England. Another cousin of the game of football is soccer; its beginnings can also be traced to English origin, being played as early as the eighteen twenties.



COLLEGE FOOTBALL: ITS BEGINNINGS


At the same time, a group of students at Princeton began playing what was then known as ‘ballown’. First using their fists to advance the ball, and then their feet, this game consisted mainly of one goal: to advance the ball past the opposing team. There were no hard and fast rules applied to this earliest attempt at the game we now call football.


At Harvard, the freshman and sophomore classes competed in a football-type game, played on the first Monday of each school year; this event came to be known as ‘Bloody Monday’ because of the roughness of the game. Pick up games, similar in style to that played on ‘Bloody Monday’, soon became popular on the Boston Common, catching on in popularity around eighteen sixty.


Soon after the end of the American Civil War, around eighteen sixty five, colleges began organizing football games. In eighteen sixty seven, Princeton led the way in establishing some rudimentary rules of the game. Also in that year, the football itself was patented for the very first time.


Taken from

http://wiwi.essortment.com/americanfootbal_rwff.htm

 

Suely football would mean a game where the foot plays a big part in it.



P.S. I don't mean running either.

 

I will agree with you there,the foot doesn't play as big a part in FOOTBALL as it does in SOCCER.

 

Then what about volleyball. A volley of what?

 

As is tennis, the volley is the ball going back & forth across the net.

 

GP.
In saying that I thought American Football might be older than Rugby Football, I was refering to the professional game, not the origins of the game, where Rugby & Soccer both pre date the American game.
For the record, the earliest professional American Football game I can find evidence of is 1890. Allegheny Athletic Association Vs Pittsburgh Athletic Club. (Source Dr Ken Thomas' article The history of American Football.)
How does that compare to Rugby? I don't know, but I have heard that it was not a professional sport until the 20th Century. But I might have heard wrong.

 

Yes thanks Ricky for pointing out the obvious.

 

American Football, or Gridiron football if you must, is better than SOCCER. In american Football you get to hit people and throw them around. People get smashed up on purpose and most of the time it isn't a foul, and half the time the fouls are stupid. In sooccer you aren't even allowed ot grab the ball, let alone grad the other played and grind him into the dirt.

By the way, PATS FAN!!!!!
3 superbowls, 4 years!

you can't spell Dynasty without NASTY!

Raiders suck. Bears suck, mostly because they beat the PATS in 1985, stupid Fridge! i hat that guy! :angry:

 

No, no, show a little respect for Pro-Football's Winningest Franchise!

William"The Refigerator"Perry was quite a sensation back in those days. A defensive lineman getting to lead block & carry the ball. I'm not sure, it might have been a first.
Funny to think as well, that only 20 years ago Perry's weight @305lbs was by far the leagues heaviest. Now that is probably average for a Tackle or DL. Evolution, steroids, alien intervention Take your pick but that is a massive average increase in weight in such a comparitively short period of time.

P.S: G.P. Got a date on that 1st Pro Rugby game yet?

 

In Britain football (ie soccer) was so called because it was played on foot rather than horseback. 'Gentlemanly' sports such as hunting, point to point racing and later polo were for the well to do who could afford horses and stabling. Football had its origins in a game played in the middle ages or earlier when whole villages would play against each other and attempt to get the ball from one end to the other, by any means. These matches could last for days! A variation of this game is still played in Workington, Cumbria UK.

 

Very interesting, I didn't know that. When is the game played at Workington? Just once a year I guess?

 

Isn't it stupid that a game which is mostly played by using hands is called football?
Like some real football fanatics say: "Life is part of football"
And they aren't referring at some weird handball

 

not quite the first game, however, from the RFU website which has been amateur for some time.

1845
Three boys at Rugby School publish their first set of written rules. These are the first written rules for any form of ‘football’ and are one of the reasons why Rugby’s game flourished whilst others died out.

1854
Trinity College, Dublin is the first rugby club to be formed in Ireland.

 

You are trying to compare 2 completely different games. Try compareing Aussie rules and gridiron.

 

Not only that they run 10 yds or 9 metres then stop because they are tired, they put on their defence until the oposition run 9 metres. then someone comes on then kicks the ball, then goes off for a rest. it is very hard work.

 

I thought I'd posted a link, must have forgotten.
http://www.timesandstar.co.uk/uppiesand ... ownies.asp