www.rugbyleagueheritageproject.c ... sp?id=1384 Eric Batten.

www.rugbyleagueheritageproject.c ... sp?id=1384 Eric Batten.

I'd suggest a gymnastic ability in a sport geared towards namby pamby showboating rather than sheer athleticism in itself.

ah keith you could be right about its namby pambyness but the sport does have it serious injuries just the same. I will point you to a report by National for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research or you could ask Mike utley or Zack Follett

I quote

In 2006, with an estimated 1.8 million participants in organized football, the survey reported a relatively high 16 indirect deaths but only one fatality directly attributable to football play (a high school running back who suffered a fatal spinal injury when tackled).
A 1994 Ball State University survey found that "players in the 1980s suffered serious injuries and underwent operations at twice the rate of those who played in the 1950s or earlier".
A 2000 University of North Carolina study found that in the period between 1977 and 1998, each year on average 13 athletes had suffered catastrophic injuries (primarily permanent paralysis) through direct result of participation in football; it also found that between 1977 and 1998 "200 football players received a permanent cervical cord injury, and 66 sustained a permanent cerebral injury".
An estimated 40,000 concussions are suffered every year among high school players


mind you i feel you could just have a PEBCAK issue

I am no fan of the sport but some of the skills are every bit as good as you see in RL - the catching of the wide receivers for one, the running skills/agility of the running backs etc.

Players like Walter Payton are up there with the very best in any sport

On Mead's try 99/100 he would not have scored it - more fortune than skill. No if you had sited some of Barber's exploits last season I would agree with you - simply awesome.

Yes there are some guys in the NFL who couldn't hope to compete in a sport with much more continuous movement like either code of rugby, simply because their positions on an NFL side require them to have strength, size and technique above speed or stamina.

If you want to see a supreme athlete however, look no further than an elite NFL linebacker - these guys have the size of a front row forward, the agility of a threequarter and the brain of a halfback all rolled into one.

As for "namby pamby", try running across the middle of the field, eyes on the ball leaving the quarterback's hands, knowing that at any point once the ball gets in your general vicinity you are potentially going to get levelled by someone you didn't even know was there until they hit you.

There's a reason NFL players wear all that padding, and it's not because they're soft.

My grandfather ( a life long St. Helens man ) born in 1910, used to tell tales of Tom Van Vollenhoven jumping over defenders to score tries. As i grew up, i started to take some of his stories with a pinch of salt, and i really did not believe his tale of him being at Knowsley Road when a "chap called Atkinson, kicked a goal from his own 20 yard line".....years after his death i read in the Guinness book of records that this was actually a true story.