Walter Camp took your beloved game of rugby and perfected it to the game we watch on Friday nights and Saturday afternoons in the fall.

Like I said, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Just like I don't consider a certain skin color a requirement to call someone attractive. But to each their own.

You are right; beauty is in the eye of the beholder. And that is why you are going crazy over girls in beach volleyball and I am not. ;)

Peace

I've just started Rugby here in Germany, and decided to read the rule book to get a feel for what is allowed and not.
There is one thing football could still learn from it's ancestor - how to write easy to understand rules!

Other than that the popularity of football over rugby is obvious since (as it has been pointed out) football was rugby, which was adapted to the temperment and tastes of it's American audience.

On a side note, does basketball get counted as an American sport? Developed in New York, but by a Canadian I believe.

I've played rugby and loved it. I've also played football, so this is an apples to apples comparison. Rugby is more physically demanding.

I also saw Welpe (Who'da thought?) saying nice things about lacrosse. My friend, we're always looking for lacrosse officials. btw - I never played lacrosse and had very limited exposure to it before jumping in as an official. I'm having a lot of fun with it.

Final note - isn't this more fun than all that yammering about some revolutionary new, safe offense? - or arguing with some super fans who watch several games a week about how poor the Super Bowl officiating was?

Chill out everyone :D It was the guys first post. Being from the UK where rugby is huge, I can understand his perspective. American Football in the UK is in the same position, a minority sport played in front of a handful of people.

Rugby was the #1 sport at my high school, and I hated being forced to play it when all I wanted to do was play soccer like my buddies who attended other schools. My school didn't play competitive soccer at all, the school principal was a "rugby" man. My dislike of it has receded over the years to the point at which I can now just about cope with watching it on TV. But I would much prefer to be in Ann Arbor watching a Michigan game.

But there are positives to being a minority sport. If I was a rugby official (one of many thousands) instead of a football official (one of maybe seventy) then I could never have hoped to work the playoffs and Bowl games that I have.

Finally I'll just point out that while JRutledge is correct about much of S.America, Argentina are actually one of the top world teams in rugby. The British influence 100+ years ago that introduced soccer to Argentina also introduced rugby.

Just to point out the uphill battle rugby has, look at the worldwide popularity of soccer and yet soccer has barely made a blip on the radar in the USA. Rugby, IMHO, will NEVER be a sport to gain popularity in the US except with college kids and former college players, i.e. the Old Boys.

We are fully aware that this was this guy’s first post. But that does not change the fact that Rugby will never reach the status of even Hockey in this country. There is no grassroots effort to make that happen. And if you know anything about this country, that would be rather obvious.

Peace

Hey I have nothing against Lacrosse other than it happens to occur during baseball season. ;) Where I'm from, the game is played by only a handful of high schools and was not that popular when I was a kid. It is just foreign to me though I can appreciate its qualities as a physical, athletic contest and its history.

I'll think about giving it a try, but that would probably mean giving up baseball or softball. Not sure I'm up for that yet. ;)

I'm not giving up baseball. Working both is giving me a nice balance during the spring/summer.

Yeahbut...mix in baseball, softball, spring football scrimmages and then lacrosse. Something would have to give lest I find myself single (especially if I want to add basketball in the winter)! :D

Ahhh, newlyweds. ;)

Rugby's already fairly well sold as a participant sport for adults in the USA, almost the way soccer is for children. The trouble with selling rugby to spectators in the USA is that it's too similar to American football. It'd be like getting att'n for softball as a major spectator sport, no matter how well it does as a participant sport.

Yet there is the model of Australia, which somehow sustains both participant and spectator interest to a high degree in several forms of football, two of which -- Rugby League (preferred there) and Rugby Union (not as popular, but not obscure) -- are as similar to each other as one of them is to American & Canadian football. American football is coming up there too, though still a distinctly minority taste. So it can be done, but not likely.

Rubgy was bigger in the USA 25-35 years ago than now, but that seems to be a result of demographics. We might've had more people playing American football then too -- a matter of having enough people the right age.

Robert in the Bronx