What else are y'all up to?

[efb]

This is an old one and when I posted it...everybody chimed in. There were only four of five of us then.

Obviously a well rounded group.

I've got a new interest since I first posted...I have a son coming around the begining of August. We found out this week...and let it be known that there is no doubt it's going to be a little boy. The nurse said, "boy he's proud of himself...this one's gonna be a mess."

"Little Steve Spurrier (google it clowns)" we're calling him for now but, Mrsefb, aka jcb, isn't gonna let me name him that in the end.

Whatever...women .

PS Suso...I bet me an you own a lot of the same records.

[Susofrick]

I've seen him! Obviously I'm the clown? And yes efb I think too that we share a lot of records. And HUGE congrats for the li'l un!

[rpardo]

Congratulations efb.....

[Adam]

I was worried for a minuite, but then I remember that kids are rarely like their parents so were O.K.....

and congratulations, but I ain't googling it, he's bound to be some daft american sports star that wear a load of padding to play a nancy version of rugby.

[efb]

It's not entirely your fault...the NFL is a pair of fake boobs with fireworks...and I'm sure they've marketed the game in Britain and Europe accordingly. Still, the i'gnance is CRUSHING...I expect more from you parsons, although for the life of me I don't know why.

Football (American Football...the actual game) is the perfection of rugby (also an outstanding game). Simply put it's rugby with a line of scrimmage. When a player is tackled the game is stopped and the ball is placed where the tackle occured, the players draw up in battle lines at that point...and go back at it. It's simulated warfare really.

The pads make it more dangerous not less knobby...a boxer wears a glove to protect his hands not the other fellas face. Observe...

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Keep in mind that I'm only concerned about college football in general and the South Eastern Conference specifically.

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These teams do not wear costumes
NFL

Power Rangers vs. Pokeman

SEC

Georgia Bulldogs (white English by the way) vs. Tennessee Volunteers (from the war with Mexico I believe) wearing the same uniforms they wore in the 1960 that they wear today.

and have been playing one another almost as long as the teams in the Premiere League.

Next chapter we read about the man, the LEGEND who, transcending even the game of football, is known simply as Steve Spurrier.

[Adam]

Protecting themselves... aw, bless. I bet they don't all sing inky pinky parlez vous and get there cock out in a grotty boozer in Gloucester either! .... and another thing all rugby players seem to have proper jobs too, most of them are solicitors so none of this sports star nonsense.

[efb]

Let's try this again...

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Me and JCB witnessed this one in person.

It is not physically possible that the reciever could throw that kind of BLOCK more than a couple of time without ending his career or losing the use of his limbs. That's what I mean by the boxer protecting his hand...it means he can throw HARDER punches and, throw a lot of them. The pads are exactly what make the game so dangerous. It allows a player to turn himself into a heat seeking missle.

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No joke...I'm sitting here with a completely torn ACL that I got playing Pee-Wee football. My leg hasn't been as it's designed to be in 23 years because of a hit I took playing football with other 12 year olds . It's not that uncommon either...at least not in my neck of the woods.

I'm talking about amatuers too...college football: no costumes, no playoffs, no tom petty half time shows, just the game that's been played the same way for about 120 years....it's NOT that professional travisty they call the National Football League.

I was in Germany when they started NFL Europe and it was just a real head shaker...it was doomed from the start. It's my mission Brother, not to make a Brit or a Euro come to love A. Football, but to appreciate the game for what it actually is and not as the lazer light show it's been presented as by the flippin NFL.

Can I get a witness.

[efb]

As for the man they call Darth Visor, the most hated man in college football, the Ole Ball Coach...you know the man that I earlier said was known simply as Steve Spurrier, well he was a football player as parsons guessed. He was first Gator to win the Hiesman trophy and broke every record at the school. More importantly he came back to be the coach of the Gators in 1991.

Before he got there the Gators had never won an SEC championship...in ten years Spurrier coached them to SIX SEC titles. He also coached them to their first National Championship in 1996.

But if you really want to know what Spurrier was about, one quote probably sums it up best.

There was a fire at an Auburn University football dorm. It was reported that twenty books had been lost from the day room in the fire. Spurrier said "yeah but the real tragedy is that 13 of them hadn't been colored in yet."

[Adam]

I wanna see missing ears though dude? I admit there is some tough knocks going on there, but nothing I ain't seen watching a couple of lower northern Rugby teams going at it, or say the Leicester tigers getting in the full swing. Each to there own, but then again I'm a motor sports guy, and before you say it- yes European, F1 etc, none of the 2 corners is enough for us US crap! whatever floats your respective boats enjoy it!

[efb]

You won't hear me questioning the toughness of rugby players. I've got a Welsh friend who's played both and he told me you far more likely to get hurt playing rugby but, far more likely to suffer permanent damage playing A. football....he then went on to describe a some gruesome injury that made me think about my knee for the rest of the night.

Anyway the idea is to make those kinds of hits the norm. The stoppages, I know these irritate British and European sensibilities too, are like cocking a gun. Still, the game could be played without pads...it would just slow it down. It used to be...course, people used to get killed playing too. It was almost outlawed by Teddy Roosevelt.

It would be a stretch to call myself a fan of NASCAR but I'd admire it...a bunch good'ns, moonshiners, shaking up the world like they have. I do enjoy watching the Grand Prix races...at least the one's in the mountains.

[Adam]

After watching some of you vids I was rooting around on you tube and found these-

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There are some real tear jerkers around the 1 minuite mark! Nasty. Don't get me wrong, I ain't questioning either AF or rugby, wouldn't catch a soft get like me doing either, the rugby at school was enough.

I just did a Red Cross first aid certificate this week (which I passed) and we went through a list of mechanics of injury for concussion and compression. I believe any of the videos in the above thread would be more than sufficient!

[efb]

:38...a thing of exsquisite BEAUTY! That was awwwwwwwwwesome.

I love Rugby. A. Football is only "football" because there was so much confusion about sports in the late 19th century. Even the social implications were same...a brutish game played by gentlemen. It was "invented" at Yale (how 'bout my Elis, hola at me) and initially played by the Ivy League. I've got articles from the 1870's explaining how the game isn't like English football..."which is played by coal-miners and other riff-raff."

Anyway, notice how most of these brusing beauties occurr in open space? That was the whole point of the line of scrimmage...creating more space for violence. It's an every play thing. Aside from the beat-downs, the most delicious consequence of this stoppage was the forward pass.

We have local clubs and e'ery once in a while we get Rugby on the TV but, not nearly enough.

P.S. What we call "clothes lining," throwing the arm out to bring somebody down by the head or neck, has been outlawed in AF. Folks were grabbing the face-guards and trying to twist player's heads off their necks.

[Adam]

yeah clotheslining is ilegal over here too, and you can even see the "high tackle" TV banner at the top of some of those. OF course, free kick they may get, but that don't help the poor sod looking for his adams apple in his arsehole!