I can’t believe I missed a thread about rugby. Clearly the answer, certainly in terms of team sports, is rugby. Way more physical than American Football, no pads, no breaks. The genetic freaks in NFL may be bigger but rugby players have better all round physicality.
^ What about Aussie rules football? Not quite as violent as rugby, but much more running.
Nice try, Jarryd Hayne
Aussie Rules is a good shout actually, they definitely cover more yards than NFL or rugby.
It’s 1 sport I just can’t stand though, never got into it at all.
I know a fair bit about rugby. The skills required to succeed in the NFL and rugby are really quite different. Jarryd Hayne didn’t have a chance and I admire him for trying. The NFL is a completely different animal and much more of a coach’s game (run this rout and turn and catch the ball) vs rugby is more free flowing with very few set plays. I think the transition would be easier for an NFL player to make it in rugby but that is never going to happen as rugby pays poorly in comparison for a top NFL prospect.
Aussie rules is a very physical game as well. I have noticed a few of these guys popping up on college football teams as punters. Again completely different skill set to NFL/american football but those AFL guys are tough as nails.
I think that guy was a Rugby League player wasn’t he? League is much more similar to gridiron and probably where gridiron evolved, with the 4 downs, no challenging at the breakdown etc.
Rugby Union is changing a lot though, particularly with the huge number of substitutions allowed in the game the players are getting much bigger as they don’t need to last 80 minutes.
Bro, of course the italians have come up with a much more demanding sport called calcio storico. Thats not the point tho, its most demanding and wrestling is far more demanding than rugby. Ask the russians or the persians, they understand this.
Didn’t read the last 6 pages of nonsense but the toughest sport is…
Boxing
http://www.espn.com/espn/page2/sportSkills
Edit: after actually reading some of the nonsense I agree that Muay Thai or UFC style MMA fighting is much more difficult and demanding on the body.
Hockey or boxing /thread
boxing @ most demanding is a joke. MT is more demanding than boxing in all aspects. With that said, wrestling takes the cake.