aircraft-engineer: “funny that we almost never hear of severe injuries in RUGBY or AUSSIE RULES FOOTBALL”
Exactly the point Ol_Goaler was making. With the helmets and padding, there’s no motivation to hold anything back. NFL players routinely throw their bodies around in ways that would result in far MORE injuries, were they playing in shorts and wooly jumpers. Also, in the NFL there’s a premium on being HUGE that’s absent in Rugby; hit hard and hit fast, and you don’t need to worry so much about sustained action. With the padding, you’re looking at 350 lbs of sprinter, using his spinal column as a battering ram. (And I’m talking about the backfield, not the linemen.)
Rugby players end up bloody and bruised, but more or less mobile. American football players end up with deep-tissue damage and shredded cartilege. It’s similar to the difference between boxing with bare knuckles and boxing with modern gloves. Fewer cuts, but more force behind every blow.
aircraft-engineer: “funny that we almost never hear of severe injuries in RUGBY or AUSSIE RULES FOOTBALL”
Exactly the point Ol_Goaler was making. With the helmets and padding, there’s no motivation to hold anything back. NFL players routinely throw their bodies around in ways that would result in far MORE injuries, were they playing in shorts and wooly jumpers. Also, in the NFL there’s a premium on being HUGE that’s absent in Rugby; hit hard and hit fast, and you don’t need to worry so much about sustained action. With the padding, you’re looking at 350 lbs of sprinter, using his spinal column as a battering ram. (And I’m talking about the backfield, not the linemen.)
Rugby players end up bloody and bruised, but more or less mobile. American football players end up with deep-tissue damage and shredded cartilege. It’s similar to the difference between boxing with bare knuckles and boxing with modern gloves. Fewer cuts, but more force behind every blow.