Who thinks American football players should take off there padding and silly helmits?

who thinks rugby players should stop wearing daisy dukes? how gay is that?

Let the average NFL player hit the average rugby player full speed, and he'll be begging for pads and a timeout.

I'm from UK, and love the sport, trust me when i say that if you had a 22-30 stone man run at you with a 12 second best for the hundred you would pray for protection. (that's normal) With 46 active players (11 infield at a time) you can imagine the strategy involved with substitutes etc.. and believe me they are tough bastards and know it.... By the way WE call it Gridiron... Take a look at this and maybe you might change your mind over the game with all the strategies and plays..

Why does everyone talk about how big American Football players are...as if that has anything to do with anything? When I was in high school, we weren't as big as NFL players, or as fast...and we wore pads. Pop Warner (youth, to you from outside the US) players wear pads too. And why do people think it is "soft" to wear pads? That doesn't make sense either....soft pads came into the game years ago, and both the game and the protection evolved with one another. The way the game is played now, it simply couldn't be done without pads...the injury rate at the pro level is horrific enough as it is. Tackles in rugby are made differently than in football because of the lack of a helmet...having a helmet allows you to hit harder without concern for having your faced bashed in by the ball-carrier's knee. So having pads encourages collisions that are MORE violent...it hurts no less, believe me. What's more, the hard plastic is a weapon in itself. Get hit on an unpadded shoulder with a helmet and you'll break a lot more bones than if you were hit with a bare head. Also, the rules of the game make a football tackle a bit harder. In rugby, a runner won't try to hit the tackler to eke out a few more yards...he needs to be cognizant of recycling the ball in the ruck. And the tackler doesn't really lose anything by giving up a yard or two, as long as he brings his man down. In football, on the other hand, giving up that ground can be as costly as missing the tackle, as possession is retained by gaining 10 yards and getting a new set of plays. Similarly, that ground can be hugely important to the runner, so both parties will go into the tackle much harder. A rugby player hurts his team if he fights for more ground and the can't set up a clean ruck. And then the question itself seems kind of ignorant if one looks at rugby. One might just as well ask if rugby players should take off their padding and silly helmets...oh, sorry..."scrum caps". Before you get all high and mighty about that, take a look at the padding worn by Gridiron players decades ago. Not a whole lot different than modern rugby pads, except the materials were a lot more primitive (leather). Who knows where rugby will be in 30-50 years. Also, when the term "football" entered the English language (centuries ago) it didn't refer to games player WITH the feet, but to games played ON your feet...as opposed to on horse.

i h8 rugby

I've always thought there was something dodgy about fully grown men banging their helmets together

Well I have watched both rugby and American football and not taking anything away from rugby players but they are just average sized men playing a great sport. I would not want to have a 350 lb defensive player in American football landing on me. Plus rugby players are in pretty good shape and can run faster. American defensive players are there for size and stopping power. Let us yanks keep our padding.

well, my brother played HS football (with pads) and never got hurt. he's now playing rugby, and has broken every extremity, and an orbital bone (got kicked in the eye). he broke his collarbone in two places, and has had 2 surgeries so far. i'm voting for the pads. he's an idiot for not wearing any.

who cares, its the worlds most boring sport anyway. they run about like headless chickens for about 30 seconds and then stop again. getting rid of the pads wont change that