Rugby Players Playing NFL

raven136

Just an of the wall thought.....how many rugby players with serious training could play nfl and who would they be

Zaph

The only one that springs to mind to have done it is Gavin Hastings, who was kicker for the Scottish Claymores in NFL Europe.

Pherekydes

A few could play placekicker or punter, but that's about it. Even the fastest wings would be too slow to play receiver.

Neil3030

Maybe (and this is obviously purely hypothetical) Victor Costello could have made it as a half back if he'd gone over about 4 or 5 years ago?

SpoonOg

What about our version of the fridge " the Claaaaw"

Neil3030

Just to give you some idea, the average weight of a front-lineman in the NFL is over 300lbs. That translates to 21.5 stone. The claw is what, 16? 17 stone?

Vikings

I think the carrickfergus knights have a 300lb average Oline aswell :P. Muscle to fat ratio is arguable :P

Myself, i am a 19.5 stone Right takcle ... used to be over 21 stone but i'm on a diet now

Pherekydes

Neil3030 wrote:

Maybe (and this is obviously purely hypothetical) Victor Costello could have made it as a half back if he'd gone over about 4 or 5 years ago?

Costello is way too slow to play halfback. Plenty of halfbacks can run faster than the Irish record at 100m; cossie wouldn't get under 12.

Najeh Davenport ran 11 flat in college, and he's a 17 and a half stone brute. Michael Bennett ran 10.17, and a windy 10 flat! This is what you're up against, folks.

daveirl

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Pherekydes

Davenport is much faster now. He's been a pro for 3 years. Lomu's lifetime best is a manual 10.8.

Check out the IAAF all-time or annual sprint lists. You won't find any rugby players on them. You will find football players there, plenty. And remember, these are the official lists for that sport. No boasting on personal websites...

gerire

I doubt any Irish player could actually make it. Ok I lie O Gara could as could Wilkinson but 2 small points against them travelling over:
1: Straight kicks would bore them and
2: They enjoy the rough and tumble hard core physical side even if the money over there is enormous.
Ok stop your gerire bashing, I know it is hard core and physical over in the NFL but not in the position they would be playing in, they would potentially never touch a single player from 1 end of the season to the other...

por

gerire wrote:

I doubt any Irish player could actually make it. Ok I lie O Gara could as could Wilkinson but 2 small points against them travelling over:
1: Straight kicks would bore them and
2: They enjoy the rough and tumble hard core physical side even if the money over there is enormous.
Ok stop your gerire bashing, I know it is hard core and physical over in the NFL but not in the position they would be playing in, they would potentially never touch a single player from 1 end of the season to the other...

A kicker is the last line of defence after a kickoff\punt, so they do get a hit or two in.
Anyway another reason why they might not go to play NFL is cos kickers are the most replacable spot on the team, if you have a bad day (Jets v Steelers a few weeks ago) as a kicker you could be out of work on Monday morning, there are no gaurenteed contracts in teh NFL.
There are heaps of former college and other kickers hanging around working in everyday jobs just waithing for a call up.

The best rugby players like Lomu might make it to the NFL but would be nothing more than average players

skittishkitten

Kickers rarely take a hit. Have you not seen them hit the dirt just from someone passing by a little to close and then try to have a penilty called for "roughing the kicker" ? Sometimes it works .....sometimes it doesn't. You can almost always tell the kicker from the rest of the team as they are usually the smallest guy out there. I agree the kickers job the worst to have as far as getting replaced, theres always someone just waiting to take their spot.

Kencu

I’m afraid O’Gara and Wilkinson wouldn’t even be able to make it. Kicking in the NFL is all about quick release. They’d have no problem with the distance but you have literally a second to generate the power which they would struggle doing. Have you ever seen kickers warming up!! The do these crazy straight leg high kicks.

The only Irish player I could see making it would be O’ Driscoll as a receiving Fullback in the Cecil Martin mould and even then it would take a year or two of training for him to even get on a practice squad.

jonnybadd

Yeah rugby kiscking and football kicking are two very different disaplines, football being by far the harder.

daveirl

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skittishkitten

Each sport has it's own specialized style of athletes. The US has been "developing" their players for AT LEAST 39 years. It's like taking an 3 day eventing horse and expect him to compete in the Kentucky Derby..... it just ain't a gonna happen ! However in the 3 day eventing the racing thoroughbred wouldn't stand a chance against his specialized cousins. American boys grow up playing football, they live it, breath it , sleep it . Just like the boys in other countries do with Rugby. If your stong enough , big enough , fast enough and talented enough then you might get the chance to play Pro. It's not who's GENETICALLY better, but who has had the oppurtunity to recieve the training and has the desire to play whichever sport they would excell in. Genetics only play a part in making you physically suitable ( weight, height, muscle mass, speed) for whichever game it is that you wish to play.

xm15e3

skittishkitten wrote:

Each sport has it's own specialized style of athletes. ....

It's not who's GENETICALLY better, but who has had the oppurtunity to recieve the training and has the desire to play whichever sport they would excell in. Genetics only play a part in making you physically suitable ( weight, height, muscle mass, speed) for whichever game it is that you wish to play.

That is so very true. This nice young man (at 17 years old) is 5'10", weights 220 lbs, squats some gawdawful number over 500lbs and benches 360lbs. DNA helped, however, he only got this strong with help from very skilled trainers and a huge amount of desire to play football. Had he'd been into soccer, he'd probably be 190lbs and extremely cut. I have no idea what he'd look like as a trained rugger.

http://www.registerguard.com/news/2005/01/22/images/b_spjonathanstewart0122.jpg

Interestingly, John Wayne played OL for USC back in his youth. Now the average college Offensive lineman weighs over 300lbs. My, how times change.

Sangre

Kencu wrote:

I’m afraid O’Gara and Wilkinson wouldn’t even be able to make it. Kicking in the NFL is all about quick release. They’d have no problem with the distance but you have literally a second to generate the power which they would struggle doing. Have you ever seen kickers warming up!! The do these crazy straight leg high kicks.

The only Irish player I could see making it would be O’ Driscoll as a receiving Fullback in the Cecil Martin mould and even then it would take a year or two of training for him to even get on a practice squad.

Well at least they get the ball placed for them nicely. Unlike an outhalf on his line being charged down by about 4 players.
I'm not saying which is harder but please, lets give these guys some credit for their abilites.

Anyway, you just cant compare. Not only are the Americans more specialised for American football, each player is also specialised for his posistion. Of course you could go on about how a certain football player is such an such a build and can go a certain speed but can he tackle, pass, catch, ruck, kick, posistion himself.
Skill for skill the americans will more than likely win but rugby players can never concentrate exclusively on such a skill. Not to mention the 80 minutes of running around a field usually tends to keep player's sizes down, especially the forwards.

Oh, on a side note, wasn't lomu offered a god awful amount to play american football?

Chucky the tree

WOuld any nfl player make it in rugby?

The_Bullman

never mind rugby - it's darts you should be looking at! Did you see Phil Taylor making his second televised 9 dart finish? Could you imagine Michael Vick making one of those? Even Peyton Manning couldnt! It goes to show that darts players have the best throwing arm in the sports world

Pherekydes

The_Bullman wrote:

never mind rugby - it's darts you should be looking at! Did you see Phil Taylor making his second televised 9 dart finish? Could you imagine Michael Vick making one of those? Even Peyton Manning couldnt! It goes to show that darts players have the best throwing arm in the sports world

Give big Phil a football or a javelin and see how good his arm is. Better still put him in the Superstars' competition, I want a good laugh.

(Sport my a$$)

Magnolia_Fan

I think NFL players would find it easier to adapt to playing rugby then rugby players would to American Football..only problem would be teaching them the rules and how not to celebrate after every tackle

Exar Khun

I dont think the football players would be tough enough to be honest.

Vikings

To be honest you havnt got a clue about football.

If you did you wouldnt have written that sentence.

You need to be tougher to play football than you do to play rugby.

In football, no matter what position you play or no matter what time of any play, you have to be physically fit, you have to make contact with another player on every play, you have to tackle someone every play. You have to get hit every play, you have to get tackled every play.

You only get tackled in rugby when you have the ball, and thats if you dont wuss out and throw it away. In football you dont get to choose when you get the ball or who you give it to. You take it and run. You get hit you go down you get up and go to the huddle for the next play.

/rant

Dammit why do people have to be so .... argh

Chucky the tree

IncredibleBulk wrote:

To be honest you havnt got a clue about football.



In football, no matter what position you play or no matter what time of any play, you have to be physically fit

and you dont in rugby?!

IncredibleBulk wrote:

you have to make contact with another player on every play, you have to tackle someone every play. You have to get hit every play, you have to get tackled every play.

what are you talking about?! "make contact", any blouse can take the "contact" a WR gets when running down the pitch when he isnt passed the ball.

A WR will only get truly hit when he has the ball, same with all other offense positions.

IncredibleBulk wrote:

You only get tackled in rugby when you have the ball, and thats if you dont wuss out and throw it away. In football you dont get to choose when you get the ball or who you give it to. You take it and run. You get hit you go down you get up and go to the huddle for the next play.

have you watched a rugby match? do you ever see what the forwards do when one of their players is tackled? they hardly stand around and are doing nothing physically demanding.

Exar Khun

Oh and I wasnt just talking physically tough, mentally tough is what im talking bout..... im talking bout legging round the pitch for 40 min a half(without takin a freaking break every couple of mins). Taking hits and giving them (without goddamn power armour) then being mentally tough enough and alert to react to play as it happens. lets just face it rugby players are just tough bastards and i dont care how fast/heavy/skillfull you are toughness will always win out........


Oh and Go Packers!!!!!

raven136

less of this bull**** bout each sport being better than the other.NFL players take and make big hits but to be honest no bigger than international forwards make in rugby as anyone who watched wasps versus leicester recently

Vikings

Chucky the tree wrote:

A WR will only get truly hit when he has the ball, same with all other offense positions.

LOL that is so untrue.

Heres a couple of examples: (56k warning!!!)



Who has the ball? Who gets hit?



Who has the ball? Who gets hit?

Now I dont watch rugby all that often, but from what I do watch of it, you do not find this in that game.

Neil3030

What a play on the top there!! Who is that?

Can't see all that clearly but I'm guessing that's John Lynch on the bottom?

Vikings

Yep Lynch on the bottom and a rookie lb named Bua for the phins on top. And yes it was a class play by him!

Chucky the tree

wow, two plays, completely porved your point there so.

daveirl

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Vikings

Chucky the tree wrote:

wow, two plays, completely porved your point there so.

Yes i did porve my point. My point was its not the onle person with the ball that gets hit hard.

daveirl wrote:

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There's about 2 maybe 3 hits on that page that could be classed as in the same league as the clips i posted. Also everyone of the people who were hit had the ball. The point i was making is that you dont have to have the ball to get hit in amfoot.

Chucky the tree

IncredibleBulk wrote:

Yes i did porve my point. My point was its not the onle person with the ball that gets hit hard.



There's about 2 maybe 3 hits on that page that could be classed as in the same league as the clips i posted. Also everyone of the people who were hit had the ball. The point i was making is that you dont have to have the ball to get hit in amfoot.

majority of the times a blocker will not get hit that hard though

Vikings

I wouldn't say the majority. I'd say its about 50/50. If a LB sees a lineman watching the play and the LB has an open shot at him, i'd say 7/10 times he'd take that shot. Might take the lineman out of the game for a series or 2.

big_moe

i play the same position and same team as incredible bulk and i came from rugby to football. i thought it would be rugby with pads i.e. get the same hits with pads so i thought i wouldnt feel a thing! i was very wrong! football has the pads so you can hit harder than rugby. i have to do a load of hittin and rarely touch the ball. o-line and d-line get a lot of hits and, as i said before, practically never touch the ball. if you like rough full contact games football is better than rugby, imo. thats coming from a rugby player who became a football player!

Pherekydes

daveirl wrote:

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Rugby players do wear padding. They just don't bother to protect the important areas of their bodies.

daveirl

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Stormfox1020

Well having played WR in High School football, and now playing winger in rugby I can say that both sports are equally as tough. Football has has tougher hits but the padding help alot, and dont forget in football you can also jump into a tackle. While in rugby you do get vicious hits with no padding but you also suffer the raking and burns from other players studs etc. I have easily settled into playing winger coming from wide reciever as the two posistion sort of complement each other. As mentioned though It would be tough for rugby players to play NFL because most Football Pro's have been playing their posistion for their whole football career and have undergone Instense training and Fitness camps to get where they are now. I found rugby tough at first though due to the amount of running needed. You have to be much fitter to play rugby than Football hence why rugby players dont weigh as much as football player. Also when you consider the US has 300 Million people and nearly 60% of boys play Football, thats probably 100x more than people who play rugby worldwide. Then again on the contrary why would pro rugby players want to play NFL when they worked their ass off to get where they are now?

besty

martin johnson plans to play football when he retires. i remember seeing him on skys football coverage saying so. some rugby wingers would make brilliant receivers. i dont think many footballers would translate well into rugby tho as it is more complex and there are many rules and things to get used to in rugger.

daveirl

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Downtime

Yeah he is a big 49ers fan and has been invited over there a few times to meet and talk to the team

Vikings

besty wrote:

martin johnson plans to play football when he retires

Well he wont make the cut in the NFL. Best he can hope for is the brittish senior league just like dwain chambers.

daveirl

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Neil3030

Martin Johnson? Clean? You may have to clear up what exactly you mean by that cos I have him down as being a right dirty prick (and annoyingly brilliant, but he's English so that just increases his score on the prick-o-metre)

daveirl

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por

daveirl wrote:

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Can you send us a link to articles on the 'terrible anti-drug policy with a positive test recieving only the very lightest of centures.'

The NFL has a stringent steroid testing policy (not as tough on recreational drugs) and a novel punishment policy
A player is only paid for the 16 games they play each year, there are bonuses for performance after that. If you fail a drugs test you get an automatic 4 match ban, that results in a 25% pay cut, the majority of players are not willing to loose 25% of their annual salary thus the number of positive test are small.
Here is a good column of the topic from Yahoo! Sports

daveirl

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Vikings

daveirl wrote:

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I would say it is comparable. Just look at what the players in other sports earn, then look at what football players earn. It could very well be 4 times the amount of those in other sports, in some cases even more.

daveirl wrote:

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Well, the BSL uses NCAA rules and not NFL rules. I'm pretty sure the ncaa and nfl have differing views on what substances are banned.

Pherekydes

daveirl wrote:

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And what T&F team hasn't? What about our very own Cathal Lombard?

A point that a lot of people miss is that the NFL is owned by the teams. It's their league and they make up their own rules. It's not behoven to WADA or any other body (and never will be). So it's up to themselves to censure their own employees.