Rugby should replace football as America’s favorite contact sport

“Sorry Sir.”

You would be hard pressed to find a time these two words made their way onto a football field. This is especially truly for interactions between players and referees. More often players are found arguing with the zebras over some penalty. Whether it is holding, pass interference, or intentional grounding you can be sure that the call is wrong and the player in question is definitely innocent.

The opposite is true for the close cousin and predecessor of football, rugby.

On the rugby pitch, the sir (rugby term for referee) commands respect. Even the massive Props, who usually stand well over 6’ and weigh upwards of 260 lbs, become meek and apologize to the sir when they are penalized. Arguing with the Sir is unheard of. His word is law.

This differing view on authority is just one of many things that sets Rugby apart from football and, in my opinion, makes it the better sport.

I started playing football when I was 10 years old. I played all through junior high and high school. I even played freshman and sophomore year for the Dillon hall interhall football team (Go Big Red!).

I have played rugby for the last two years. During my time abroad, I played for a rugby team in the national German rugby league. I like to think these experiences qualifies me to compare them.

One key cultural difference between these two sports is the way that success is treated. In football, it is all too common to celebrate after any big play. A big catch is often followed by flipping the ball and celebrating with teammates. If a linebacker or a defensive lineman makes a sack or a tackle behind the line he will almost always stand over his victim to taunt him.

This does not even cover what happens when someone scores. There are dances and fully choreographed celebrations for touchdowns. Showboating is so common in football that there is even a penalty specifically for excessive celebration.

The nonstop style of rugby leaves no time to celebrate big plays. If a player makes an impressive line break before being tackled he does not flip the ball away and strut to the sideline. He places the ball so his scrumhalf can distribute and continue play. When a tackle is made, the tackler goes straight into a counter ruck. He has not time to stand over his opponent. Even when a try is scored, the scoring team simply high fives and heads back for the restart.

Even if you ignore the differences in the cultures of these two sports, it is clear that rugby is superior.

The main appeal of football is how much of a physical challenge it is. People love watching massive bodies collide in the pursuit of advancing a ball into designated area.

One thing that might make football even more impressive is if we were to take away the full body armor that the players wear. The mental and physical toughness of football players would be even more evident without that protection. On top of this, players would then have to use more proper and safer techniques for tackling and running the ball to avoid injury instead of depending on the padding to protect them. This would lead to more technically sound and precise game play.

One of the biggest complaints about football is the start and stop of games. So get rid of the downs and just let play continue after the tackle. This would allow for nonstop action. Every second of the game would count.

With this new non-stop style of play, long passes would turn games into scoring sprees. If you take away the forward pass the strategy and ability of the players to move defenders would become much more important.

Even though a touchdown is worth 6 points, scoring one is almost always a guaranteed 7 points. This is because the extra point kick in football is taken from right in front of the goal posts. The NFL has recently addressed the issue of PATs by moving the spot of the kick back to the 15 yard line but any kicker worth even a fraction of his paycheck should still be able to hit that kick with his eyes closed. Instead of moving the kick back, the rules committee should have moved the kick laterally. Making teams take their PAT directly back from where the touchdown was scored would make that 1 point so much more valuable.

If we stop here and look at the changes we have made, we see the beginnings of an all new sport. But what should this new game be called? Most of the world would call it rugby.

Whether it is the culture of the sport or the mechanics of the game itself, rugby is clearly superior to football.

But even if you are still think football is the better sport, we can all agree that both Rugby and football are miles ahead of soccer.