Rugby is a "Contact" Sport while the NFL is a "Collision" Sport

I grew up in Japan playing rugby and played college football and it’s a common misconception that football hurts less because of the pads. In rugby people wrap you up to tackle you. In football they just run through you. Football hits hurt incredibly more than rugby hits. While you may have pads and a HARD helmet on the people tackling you also have the same which makes it hurt 10x more.

I have played both rugby and football. Rugby is tough because of the endurance and the lack of pads but the collisions in football are like being in a car crash

As an American that lived in NZ I can tell you a couple huge differences between Rugby and Football. In Rugby, when tackling, you must wrap your arms around the opponent. In Football you simply smash them. In Rugby to can only hit the ball carrier. In Football you can hit anyone (basically). Also, in Rugby it is rare that opposing players are far apart and get up a full head of speed AT each other. That is the norm in Football. Both are very rough sports, no doubt. But it's comparing apples and oranges

One of the best observations I have heard about American football made by an Australian rugby player and KZfaq reactor is that American football players play more aggressively and recklessly than rugby players BECAUSE they wear helmets and pads. He posited that it gave them a sense of protection bordering on feeling indestructible so they could unload full force on an opponent.

The funny thing about the Darrell Green anecdote was that he was downright small. 5-9, 185 pounds. His deal was being one of the fastest football players of all time.

Depending on the era.. some of the hits were legal. Most of these are illegal now, but to REAL NFL Fans… a hard it is a hard hit!

One of the things people don't often think about with football pads is that they allow players to hit harder similar to how a boxer with a boxing glove can hit harder than a bare knuckle fighter cause he won't break his hand. Most football players lead in with their shoulder so the shoulder pads allow them to hit harder without dislocating their shoulders.

CTE was literally a thing examined because of American Football. It was looked at in other sports (Rugby etc) BECAUSE of american football. The hits that players take in american football reach unbelievable levels of G forces far beyond any other sport other than a wall crash at 200 mph in F1 / Nascar / Indycar etc.

Hall of Famer Darrell Green was a Defensive Back, which is a smaller faster player tasked with covering the fastest offensive players, the wide receivers. In his prime, Darrell was known as the fastest man in the NFL.

You can grab the shirt. However, what she's referring to is probably a "Horse Collar" tackle. Those are illegal. A horse collar tackle is when a guy is chasing another, grabs the runner's jersey at the neck and drags him backwards or to the side. A lot of knee injuries have happened from those kinds of tackles, so they were made illegal.

They say a full on NFL hit is like being in a 30mph/48kph collision in your car with no seat belt. And over a game you may be in that collision somewhere between 0 and 8 to 12 times depending on what position your playing. I used to play both HS and college ball(left side DE and strong side middle linebacker), loved every bit of it, but now in my 50's am paying for it hard. Even down into HS and junior HS the hits can be quite hard, its a fun game, but a hard game, not everyone can play.

Not all the hits in this video were "legal" hits, and in some cases the rules have changed to not allow those types of hits. For instance, you can't lead with your head anymore (thank God, cause that's how I got KO'ed playing football), and some of the hits you'll see a guy hit low from behind while someone hits high from the front (that one hasn't been legal for a long time). You can grab the shirt, but not the pads (aka Horse Collar tackle). The average size of an NFL player is around 6 feet talk and 230 lbs.

The NFL is comprised of the largest, fastest, and strongest athletes in the world bar none. Anyone who thinks ruby is brutal or that American Football players wearing padding makes them “softer” is just speaking out of ignorance. I mean not to be too hard on rugby but it’s a lot of hugging where as in the NFL they HAVE to wear pads because there are literally brutal collisions every single play.

As your partner there said, these guys are very very large human beings. Having a restaurant full of them is another experience altogether. By large, I mean larger than life HUGE. The average (50th percentile) size of an Offensive lineman is 6-foot-5, 314 pounds... that's 195.6 cm, 142.5 kg in non-freedom units. And that's the average. They get bigger. The average receiver (the guy the quarterback passes the ball to) size is 6-foot-1, 193 pounds (185.4 cm, 87.5 kg), and the average quarterback is 6-foot-2, 210 pounds (188 cm, 95.3 kg). When you see them up close, it's kind of humbling. There are a couple of "Biggest Freaks of Nature in the NFL" videos floating around that are worth a watch. You might also like the "Mic'ed up moments" videos.

The level of strategy involved in American football can't be appreciated without years of watching it. It may seem like simple stupid violence, but it's miles deeper than any other sport. Every offensive play is fully planned, and there are thousands of possibilities in terms of runs vs passing, route combinations, the dozens of formations, the blocking schemes, defensive schemes, blitzes, fakes, etc. It's a giant chess match. I could write paragraphs here and only scratch the surface. Perhaps watching a full game broadcast of a classic game on youtube would give you the chance to see a game and rewatch some of the in-game analysis and replays to start learning the learning the rules, and how the teams are working to overcome their opponents strengths and to create and exploit their weaknesses. Off the top of my head Superbowl 49 and 51 were great classic games.

Speaking of Darrell Green, he played for then Washington Redskins (Washington Commanders) from 1983 to 2002 as a Cornerback or CB. His team won 2 Superbowls. Besides playing football, Green was a standout at Track and Field. Green is inducted in both NFL and College Hall of Fame.

A lot of the rules have changed in recent years due to the amount of injuries. In 1984 the Chicago Bears and Raiders played in a game where the Raiders Quarterback had a couple of teeth knocked out, knee cartiledge torn etc, both the starting and backup quarterbacks were injured and the only player they could use as a third string quarterback refused to go into the game. The Bears Quarterback also suffered a lacerated kidney +++ I don't remember all of the injures. Another memorable game was the 1990 game between the Eagles and Redskins nicknamed "the body bag" game. So , the rules were changed for a reason. :D They still hit very hard though and some of these hits are still legal.

Loved your expression when you saw that first hit! Your eyeballs! Welcome to America. Enjoy.

I played both rugby and football and I'll just say I never got a bad concussion in rugby

Darrell was so huge! Me also at 5'9: (crying) Thank you.

The most impressive thing to me is how many times you hear "boom" and the ball DOES NOT COME LOOSE.

ESPN had a show called Sports Science. One episode tested which sport actually had harder hits/tackles. The fact that American football has pads made the hits harder. It’s the pads and helmet that makes the hits/tackles harder because of their existence. Sounds weird to me but having no protection causes Rugby to have subconscious way of pulling up. It might not be noticeable to the players and watchers but, I guess, their scientific instruments showed it.

10:07 there's only been a single on field death during a game. It was in 1971. There have been several people to have been permanently paralyzed from hits in games. The amount of players that have died later in life at rather young ages due to repeated blunt force injuries to the head, specifically concussions, is staggering though.

As someone who has played both, I can most assuredly tell you American football hits are harder, more vicious, and result in way more injuries than Rugby. My worst injuries I have ever had came from American football as opposed to Rugby.

Having played both, football is scarier. The injuries in rugby are much more frequent but they aren’t as serious in football because there’s no requirement to actually wrap for a tackle in football so a lot of football tackles are an instant red card in rugby.

In most cases we find that wearing the pads adds confidence to the player letting them hit that much harder without worrying about getting hurt so much. It liberates them to fully take off the restraints and slam into each other with forces that would break them without the pads. They aren't there to keep you safe from being hit, they are there to let you hit THAT much harder!

Darrell Green was 5'9 and 184 pounds. He was very small by football standards. The average NFL player is 6'2 and 250 pounds.

I went to a European rugby practice in Switzerland once. I kept getting in trouble for hitting too hard with my shoulders and head. Also, I was knocking people down with blocks. They were amazed I hit that way with no pads. I’m like, yeah and? We only wear pads in school or organized football. We play full contact on weekends with no pads. After practice the Scottish coach asked me where I was from. I told him, “Texas.” He threw his arms up and chuckled, “Well that explains everything now.”

1st.) I have seen this video maybe a hundred times. (I love seeing peoples reactions to it.) All of the hits it are legal. The one Clothesline tackle on the quarterback in the black-and-white clip is no longer legal but at the time of the clip it was legal and a very common form of tackling. 2nd) I played organized American Football for over 30 years (and even had a few pro tryouts, never made the team though.) I was good enough and fast enough 4.3 40 yard dash, to get invited to 3 training camps but, always too small to make the team, 5'10" 175 lbs as a reciver. I joined a ruby club while living in Europe that had several Australians and 2 New Zealand landers on it and had a British coach. I was not impressed with the hits. Yes there were some good hits but no where near anything that rocked me like in American Football. I was often told I was too violent and needed to calm down. The next year I joined an American Football club and convinced 2 players from the Rugby club to try it and the violence and aggressiveness was more to their liking. They both loved it and never went back to the rugby club. 3rd) in the 60's and 70's the game had a rash of players being paralyzed, so there were a few rule changes and changes to equipment. 4th) before the creation of professional football the sport was HUGE as a college sport. It was so violent and the sport produced so many severe injuries and deaths (yes deaths, not a big number but way bigger than a sport should have had), I believe it was 1 or 2 deaths a year. So many that Congress intervened and forced changes. Now I'm not wanting to diminish the hard hits in rugby, because there are some, but the hard hits happen at a much lower frequency than in American Football. I will also admit that my experiences may be tainted by the fact that I played American Football at a level higher than most people ever will and my rugby experience was only at a club level.

I flinched more watching this than I did watching your Rugby's biggest hits video 🤣

The awesome thing is most of these guys get up and keep playing right after these hits

"I know it's not as hardcore as Rugby?" Mates, are we watching the same video?

I'd suggest this video it does a good job explaining the rules for beginners "The Rules Of Football -Explained! (NFL)" I hope this helps...Great reaction👍

Football was brutal at times. Played 11 years, saw broken legs, arms, collarbones a neck (poor guy), concussions, dislocations, torn ligaments and people knocked out cold. I was once hit so hard that it jarred my retinas in both eyes, leaving me literally blind for about 30 seconds. It was terrifying. I sat out 3 plays before the coach put me back in. I played the rest of the game and that was considered normal. I've played a bit of rugby too. It's no where near as "impactful". It's more endurance based with more rules around tackling, no blocking. It's still rough but it really isn't in the same league in terms of collisions and pain.

Ive always watched college and NFL football, I do respect rugby as a sport, and I do enjoy watching it every now and again. But I do say that American Football is more violent and hard hitting, and I love it. The NFL is actually signing some contracts to get a European leauge, which will play against the 32 already established teams, which I will enjoy very much, and maybe both sports will gain more popularity in eachothers home territories, I would love to see Rugby grow here and NFL grow around the world!

I don't know if you heard but you should look at damar hamlins injury, that was scary but also its like a one in a million thing for someone to die while on the field. they did resuscitate him thankfully and has been discharged from the hospital.

It's when you can hear the hits when you realize how hard they were. There is such a loud "crack" and the crowd just goes "OHhhhhhh"! It's worse when the players are miked up.

Damn i must have been playing warrior rugby from y'all's description 😂 rugby for me has always been obviously rugby rules and gameplay. But it has always been full force collision

The thing about these hits is that the players use all that "protection" as a weapon when they hit each other. I would not want to take a full-speed hit in the midsection by another player's shoulder pads.

I played from age 8 to age 18, and the helmets themselves are like battering rams. They weigh more than ten pounds and the facemasks are iron covered with hard rubber. The physics of the game are such that when there is going to be a hit, whoever is moving faster feels it less. So there is incentive to hit as hard as you can. The NFL has cracked down on high hits to the head in recent years so a lot of the hits you saw are now illegal. But in the hey day before they were made illegal, football was an awfully fun sport to watch. As a player even jsut playing through high school I had concussions, broken bones, messed up ligaments, sprains, cracked my sternum, broke my nose, it was a brutal sport. And I wouldn't trade a minute of it. The testosterone rush in the moment is indescribable. When you knock that guy into the middle of next week adn he is afraid to came to your side of the field on a play, you've already won the game. Of course back in the 70s and 80s we didn't have a full grasp about the head injuries and CTE. So we led with our heads to maximize the impact. My neck still hurts and is stiff thirty years later.

As an american football player, I can confirm tha tthe hits hurt a lot. when you have a 300lbs linemen who runs a 4.8 40 yard dash, and is hits you at a full sprint, there is no avoiding the pain. no pad or heleme can help you in football.The majority of these plays were against the rules, because of targeting, which is wher you dive and make contanct with your shoulder to the front of their body, your helmet to their helmet, or you aming for their helmet.

I'd love you see you react the NFL's craziest weather games! There's a couple videos! We play football in nearly all weather! As far as I understand, they don't play rugby in the snow!

Dude died on the field a few weeks ago in the NFL from a big hit, he was brought back to life 3 times before staying alive.

I also think if you want to really get into American Football you have to start by going to a big College game live or an NFL rivalry game of two teams that are playing well that season to get the full experience.

A Detroit lions player died in the 60’s. Darryl Stingley a NE WR was paralyzed by a hit in the 70’s. There have been other neck/ paralysis injuries, and a few players whose heart stopped on the field but were resuscitated. It is actually rare but it is a risk.

Hey man great reaction 👍

I met an NFL offensive lineman once, and he was huge. I am 5'10" and he was almost 6'8" and easily 280lbs. When he shook my hand, it was like putting my hand in a baseball glove, it was so big. As for hitting hard, I know of a pro Rugby player that got to practice with an NFL team, and he said in his experience the NFL hits harder than rugby players.

Just a few weeks ago, Damar Hamlin's heart stopped after being hit during a game. He needed to be resuscitated on the field and the game was called off.

And we start them young! You should watch hardest hits in little league football! It's crazy!

A player from the Buffalo Bills team in 2022 got speared in the chest by another player from Cincinnati, and his heart stopped on the field. He was revived and is now doing well. He did die, but was brought back. If you really want to know what the NFL is like, I read an article that when the offensive line and defensive line come off the ball, it is like a car collision at about 45 to 55 miles an hour.

The most common injuries in football have been concussions and paralysis, sadly.

I think they're roughly even in brutality. NFL hits harder but has pads while rugby has no safety net. The big things are the rules added over the years making both sports less brutal, so as new rules come out, the "most" brutal sport will change anyways. That being said NFL players are bigger, faster, stronger but rugbys got better endurance

Liking the video and the South Carolina shirt

You gs should watch the best mic’d up ejections in baseball, or Jomboy lip reading compilations from baseball. It’s hilarious!

To give you an idea about just how big some of these guys are I worked at a hotel in the late 80's that was the NFL sanctioned hotel in Green Bay Wi so the teams stayed there before playing the Packers on Sunday. On a normal elevator the teams were only allowed to have 5 team members and a coach ride the elevator at a time due to the weight limit and the space inside the elevator. I was 6 ft 3in/ 190cm tall and weighed about 300 lbs/137 kgs and the linemen were bigger than I was. They were absolute giants.

Helmets and pads give you a sort of “false sense of security.” It makes you feel like a robot and you can run through anything, but the way my head felt after every football game I played was unimaginable.

Darrel Green was a Corner back for the Washington Redskins. He was the fastest player in the NFL for years and years, and a top corner back who is now in the NFL Hall of Fame. Corner backs are among the smallest players in the NFL, but typically are the quickest and fastest. Their job is to guard the receivers and prevent pass completions.

I played football in college, go Montana State Bobcats!, and I've had friends that played rugby and I've even played a little, very little, myself. The major difference is that in Football you are allowed to block for your ball carrier, so you are always in danger on the field because you can always be hit, and most of the plays are designed to hit you when you aren't seeing it coming. And even though we wear pads, the biggest concern is that when you are moving full speed one direction and get slammed backwards your brain hits the front of your skull, so concussions are a major thing and hard to completely eliminate since no padding can protect the brain from that violent stop.

Hey Love your Surf City shirt That is where I live!!!

NFL hits wayyyyy harder it’s not even a debate

Around the 4:10 mark of the vid on the question of "grabbing the shirt".....One can grab the shirt as part of the tackle, and in fact that it is not allow for players to wear "tearaway" jerseys. Also it is allow to tackle by grabbing the long hair of players sticking out from under the helmet. Not only that one cannot tackle by grabbing the helmet/face mask, one cannot "horse collar" or grabbing the shirt opening and shoulder pads around the neck area.

when your lit up like that, if you survive the hit for the rest of the game, you are jacked looking for revenge. and when you lite someone up like that, you get that 10 foot tall and bullet proof feeling. but the next day it's all you can do to roll outta bed. regardless of which one you were for the game. played 3 years in college, never made it to the pros, but damn i miss playing that game.

One of the big differences between Rugby and "Football" is that "Blocking" is allowed - you can collide with a tackler thus preventing him from reaching the ball carrier. Down field blocking during a pass play, or during a kick return or an interception is displayed in a number of these hits. Some of these hits knocked people unconscious... the rules have been changing recently to reduce the number and severity of concussions. People forget that College Football was almost banned by President Teddy Roosevelt - because too many players were getting Killed.

This song is perfect for this!! 🎶

Underappreciated aspect of football: stopping play and resetting everyone every single time the ball is downed. Why? Because it allows everyone to catch their breath and reassess, it means most players on most plays are giving nearly 100% effort, and running at top speed. This contributes to big hits. Also, it means that strategy is of supreme importance. Every play is planned and called for the situation by the coaches, and every player has a specific job to do. The chess game aspect is arguably as significant to the outcome as the physical aspect.

Just joined yer channel. Have you done best worst RODEO moments? I’m from Texas, it’s common but it will blow his mind:)

You should react to college teams biggest game entrances...

I went to highschool with a guy that got a scolorship to play football in college. During pre season training and practice, he went head on helmet to helmet with another player. When he came to in the hospital, they showed him his x-rays of the back of his head where his skull had, and he still has, a fracture from his ear socket to the base of his skull. That was the end of his football opportunities; and needless to say , his scholarship. That was 40 yrs ago, and he still has to be cautious of hitting his head on anything.

Some of these hits were legal at the time and some are still allowed. Mainly they tightened up restrictions on helmet to helmet contact as well as hitting someone before they have control of the ball on punt receiving.

A lot of these hits were legal some were not and you saw video probably from a 20 year span not including the B&W video, the rules are constantly changing to protect vulnerable players so at the time some of the legal hits were done some would now draw a penalty. The face mask one on the quarterback in the Black and White Illegal… you can grab the jersey while trying to tackle, you can’t grab them by the back of their shoulder pads for a horse collar tackle. If you want to see some more hard hitting check out Bob Probert from the NHL great enforcer and fighter or hard hits in hockey. First time checking your channel looking forward to more, liked and subscribed

in the last 10 years or so they've also created a rule targeting which is when you more or less lead with your head and your head strikes the receivers head which is been a rule implemented to reduce the number of concussions

Even though imma seasoned fan I still go "whoah!" when it's a big hit. I hate seeing them seriously injured too, especially when helmets fly off 🤯

Most hits are legal, but players do get penalized for certain hits (like taken out of the game). I remember a hit was made on Big Ben in his last year of playing, he got decked hard by a Ravens player when Ben hut the ball and it has legal. The Ravens player timed it perfectly and they even reviewed it and it stood as a legal hit. That's what I remember, its been a while, it could've been two years ago.

My dad showed me this back when I was in 7th grade to scare me, ended up making me play all 4 years in highschool lol😂

As a British guy I do really like American football, the hardest thing I found to get used to was how stop starty it is

Noticed your sweatshirt. I'm from Surf City, NC. You must've visited us sometime? Or are you from the area? Love the video

She said “see he’s dazed” lmao nah that man has a TBI 😂

I played rugby for one season and football all throughout school... rugby is hard work and constant but the hits dont compare. Being hit in football is honestly so brutal it feels like being hit by a car. I remember chasing someone down on defense and getting blocked (blindsided) and it was worse feeling than the one car crash ive been in.

You know what we did in the off-season from football? We played football still, no pads, same style of play..maybe more aware of our heads, but still. So I chuckle at any comparison to rugby..and rugby is an awesome and tough sport but nothing like football.

I remember reading about an Australian rugby player who tried out for the NFL and gave up because he couldn’t take the hits.

Just FYI, we have Rugby here in the states and like it too, it's not not popular. There are more than 900 college teams alone between men and women. So we are familiar with it. Also the shoulder pads are 3 layer's of hard impact plastic like a car bumper to put all your weight behind and hit someone with. It's open season on every player on the field. Anyone can get it if you have the ball or not It's a chess game of inches. You can't lead with the helmet or go helmet to helmet anymore, but most the hits were legal,

Actually you’d be surprised how many football players die, usually from snapping their necks, also the force of a football hit is a lot more than a rugby hit for multiple reasons. The main reason being that they run just as fast if not faster than rugby players even with all the gear, and the gear adds extra weight which equals extra momentum which means more energy transfer.

Darrell green was a relatively small nfl player as well, played corner back if I’m not mistaken

Rugby is a Contact Sport, and Football is a Collision Sport!

The pads are a two way street. Remember they protect the hitter as much the one getting hit. The hitters are more fearless...Also, a lot of the tackles, like the shirt one, were legal when that game was played but not now.

Rules defining a defenseless player were expanded in 2011 to include eight categories: A quarterback in the act of throwing; A receiver trying to catch a pass; A runner already in the grasp of tacklers and having his forward progress stopped; A player fielding a punt or a kickoff; A kicker or punter during the kick; A quarterback at any time after a change of possession; A receiver who receives a blind-side block; A player is already on the ground.

Every single hit is clean asf

Plenty late, but I love watching people who have never seen football react to this video. Most of these hits are legal. Some are no longer legal, but a few weren't legal even when they happened. A large portion are still legal. Grabbing the helmet/facemask is illegal and has been for a long time. You can grab the shirt/jersey. You can't pull the player down backwards from the shirt or collar. Pads protect the person doing the hitting much more than the people who are getting hit. It's similar to what happened in boxing. The gloves actually let the boxers punch harder, because it protected the boxers hands from breaking. The end result is that more force actually goes into the opponent. A good portion of these are what are called "hospital passes". The QB threw the ball to a guy who he could see (or should be able to see) was going to get hit freely. The receiver wasn't going to have time to see the opponent coming in for the hit.

During this video I saw exactly ONE flag being thrown. There's a facemask grab that's now illegal, but was perfectly legal for a long time. And the shoulder pads just allows them to hit harder.

Guys you should react to AFL ( Aussie Rules Football) biggest hits. I think you'd enjoy it

you cannot grab the facemask but you absolutely can grab their jersey lmao

Come on you Gunners!!! ( From Florida)

The pads make the hits harder haha def more brutal that rugby. Can’t tackle above the waist either in rugby

The best hit I've ever seen was in a college game. An Iowa Hawkeye defensive player hit an opposing player in the thigh pads hard enough to knock off that guy's helmet.

Another big thing for him to realize is that some of these videos have players as young as high school doing these big hits

Played American football through college, never played rugby once, so I don’t really know the physical difference, but football is violent as hell sometimes. Hits like the ones in this video are pretty uncommon though, definitely not every play. I was a safety though, so I generally did the hitting.

I would argue that it's more hard-core than Rugby because they allow the full on open hits (with the pads) where it's the equivalent of a pedestrian being hit by a car going 20mph for the open field ones

Was the Comcast ad for smoking with him in it and the kids in the back geound???

You should do one on Jack The Assassin Tatum, or Lawrence Taylor, Dick Butkus, or