Off Topic Board

Why isnt rugby a bigger sport in America? They don't wear pads, it's rough like football. Do we veiw it as a knockoff from football even though it's been around longer? Are we just stupid? I like how 7's rugby is going to be in the olympics this year.

But can Rugby and Football be really popular at the same time? Isn't it pretty much one or the other? Is that why football never really caught on there? People were watching Rugby instead? And wouldn't you have said a few years ago Baseball was just so ingrained in America it could never be overtaken? I know, I know soccer is crazy

I played and coached for a season in Germany. Like Der said, it's much more popular there than in any other country in Europe. Austria is the only one that's even close.

Several reasons off the top of my head.

Equipment - it costs a fortune to get even adequate equipment there, because they have to get it shipped from the US. You should have seen some of the helmets my teammates were wearing - nowhere near safe. For a sport that's trying to establish a niche, that often kills it before it even gets started with a lot of kids, because other sports are much less cost-prohibitive.

Coaching/training - both are absolutely awful. Some teams bring over Americans to help out with it, so if those teams bring over the right Americans (many of them don't), they're much further along than other teams are. The vast majority of German/European coaches have absolutely no clue, so the kids playing are at yet another disadvantage right off the bat. In terms of training, there are much fewer people in general that actually lift/workout hard. And out of those, barely any of them have any idea how to even train specifically for football.

The culture - they just don't get it. It wasn't a big deal to them growing up, so even the Germans that love football now have a completely different understanding/appreciation for the game than anyone in America does. If they aren't getting playing time, they'll quit. The concepts of earning playing time, beating someone out, contributing on special teams, etc are foreign to them. We also had a number of players on our team that just wouldn't show up to games or practices if it were hot, rainy, they had a toothache, etc. In one season, we had the most infighting on our team of all other teams I've ever been on, combined. We'd be up 21-0, and teammates of mine would literally come to blows on the sideline over nothing. In almost every game, we had someone quit the team in the middle of the game, only to come back on Monday. Lastly, I hope this doesn't come across in an offensive manner, but it's just a softer culture in general than what we have. There were definitely some very tough guys that I met there, but not nearly as many as you'd find in America.

Totally agree, and to add a few points to what you said.

- Germany and Europe in general having no history with football, unless they hire US coaches like Todd said, they're basically starting from scratch. They have no concept of sport specific training outside of soccer clubs because they have no high school sports.

- Too say that Germans don't work out much, is putting it lightly. Most, if not every place in Germany you have to pay for gym memberships and the few who actually do pay MIGHT go once a week, if that. While it is true that they're a little less vehicle dependent then us, it's mainly just the kids who are and that's just because it takes 2 years longer for them to get both a permit and a license.

- It's just impossible to ask why some American sports don't fit in all over the world. Football is pretty easy because the cost factors even in America is very high, my Basic Athletic Training class met with Greg(?) Morris for one of the classes where he went over what they do just with helmet's and it's amazing. They buy new helmets or send in the old ones to be reconditioned every 2 years by licensed professionals and if they aren't reconditioned, then the warranty on the helmets is automatically voided. Each individual helmet also costs a couple hundred dollars.

This video is a highlights of offenses. Again why would a country like Scotland play anything else when American football was evolved from this?

Rugby is a great sport. I love it just as much as American football but to those that haven't understood the game they don't realize Rugby has a hockey/soccer/wrestling/football feel to it. All my rugby buddies from Europe use to say that NFL football just isn't exciting to them because of the down time in between plays.