That’s true. However, you could still build a model of a football or rugby player using many of the same parameters - speed, acceleration, ability to change direction, ball handling, etc. Professional rugby players are, on average, almost definitely behind the equivalent American football players in all of these metrics.
He’s going to be a punt returner. How is that not almost identical to what he already does? He’s also appropriately sized for that position, maybe a bit heavy, but not the biggest punt returner in the league. You’re taking the league’s best player for two years running and putting him into a nearly identical position trying to return the ball against NFL squads. He will either succeed or get his ass kicked and answer the question.
Punt return is actually a specialized position that for all intensive purposes is basically Rugby. You catch a punted ball and try to run the other direction down a field while other guys try to stop you from doing that. In this case those guys will be NLF players instead of a Rugby squad.
I grew up in New Zealand where rugby is a religion. Just to be clear, Jarryd Hayne is a rugby league player not a rugby player. These are two different sports with a bit different skill sets.
Rugby players are tough, but the NFL guys are absolute beasts. It will be interesting to see how Jarryd Hayne performs. I think he has a steep hill to climb.
^Because the ideal rugby player is supposed to be behind an NFL player in most of those metrics. The siE requirements are different, the conditioning levels are different etc.
Furthermore, the NFL heavily recruits players from a few places where Rugby is the predominant sport, namely the South Pacific. On a per capita basis, those regions are probably the best as a source of talent.
And why, for the love of god and irrational reasoning, would the ideal player be “supposed” to be behind an NFL player in speed, acceleration, change of direction and ball handling?!??!?!
And what’s your point about the NFL recruiting players from those areas? Just to reinforce our point that all the best athletes are in the NFL?
Yeah I mean take all the metrics in anything else or NFL or Rugby, divide by weight and MMA (UFC) is always going to regine supreme. Even take a(n equal weight) heavyweight UFC versus NFL / Rugby … UFC guy has trained harder… UFC is more athletic and demanding
^Not even close? You realize Samoa has a population of about 65,000?
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You’re just stating completely subjective opinions. At least attempt to use facts or a rational basis.
Hmm…that’s not really a good size to play any position. Cornerback would probably suit him best, but he’s white so that’s not happening. He’s trying out as a RB. At 6’2", I think he’s going to get broken in half. Knile Davis (2nd best RB in the AFC West) is 5’10", 227 lbs and can run a 4.3.
The more I think about it, screw rugby. They would get crushed on the field with or without pads by any NFL practice squad.
I edited it once I looked at that. But regardless, my edited post says what’s the point? Other than to reinforce that the NFL has all the best athletes?
And you still didn’t answer why the ideal rugby player should be slower with less acceleration and inability to change direction quickly with poorer ball handling skills.
And talking about 20 players in the NFL being from a 65,000 person island country is ummm… pointless.
I agree.
Trying to build a model that could be viable enough to compare Jim Brown and Lionel Messi would be futile but theoretically Rugby and American Football have enough underlying commonalities to not make such a comparison outlandish. However any pro-athlete who has tried to transition to another sport later on has got his ass handed to him on a platter and ultimately that would be the most likely outcome of any Rugby player trying to transition to the NFL or vice-versa despite the fact that the models will favor NFL players over Rugby players.
Whatever happened to Jesse Ryder btw?
I have never played football,but as a person who played rugby semi professionally (I played in yorkshire youth leauge almost 4 years) I can tell you NFL guys are harder,tougher and more agile.The amount of money invested in each sport should tell you.As I have said in my last post money now days is the deciding factor.In developing athletism and not the sport itself.
P.S
Many semi professional rugby players have full time jobs stoping them from training effectively,I bet the case is not true for football playerd
Rugby players are supposed to be behind in a lot of these metrics because their conditioning is so different. NFL players are conditioned to play in pretty short bursts of explosive pace and then stop, with plenty of rest time, Rugby players don’t have that. If you take an NFL running back and condition him to play rugby, he will lose that 4.3 speed, his explosive acceleration, etc. (same thing would happen if you condition him to play soccer, where he might have to run 6mi/game.)
in in terms of “changing direction”, it depends on the position, some rugby players will be quite good at it, like some NFL players, there is no “average”.
There would be no incentive for a top NFL player to go and play rugby as the salary differential is significant. There have been plenty of athletically gifted players that have failed as rugby players because the sport requires specific skills that take years to develop. Even if you took the best NFL player (JJ Watt) and put him on a rugby field the learning curve would be steep despite his athletic ability. There is more to rugby than being the strongest, fastest etc.
^Good point.Furthermore the main simillarity between them is the ball shape.From watching NFL I can argue that they are quite different in structure and point system,I for one however would still enjoy rugby if I get a decent chance
Eric Dickerson: 6’3", 220 lbs
2,105 yards in a single season, a record that still stands 30 years later. He also went over 1,800 two other times.
Jerome Bettis…too but these are the exception
EDIT: he’s only 5’11, thought he was bigger.
I agree that rugby and football are different. However, is anyone really arguing that rugby players are equally optimized and conditioned as American football players, or that professional rugby leagues are anywhere nearly as professional, organized, and competitive as American football? To believe this, one would have to be totally divorced from reality. Imagine if I were to argue that Kabadi was as competitive as rugby and justified the failure of Kabadi players to compare physically to rugby players by saying that the selection criteria are different. The NFL produces monsters; they are like Ivan Drago - the scientifically best athlete that can be produced today. Other countries (and perhaps this is a good thing) have nowhere near the resources or commitment to invest in producing such borderline superhuman freaks.
Jim Brown was also an accomplished lacrosse player in college.
He was also one of the fastest running backs to ever play the game, and his balance and ability to make guys miss were otherworldly. Something tells me this dude from Down Under doesn’t have similar attributes.