Comparison: Football Vs American Football

What would you rather do, go to a football game or a rugby game? Would you rather yell at the “scrum” or cheer for the completed “flea-flicker”? Do you prefer pads or shorts? Well, first you should probably know the differences between them before you choose. There are many similarities and contrasts in these two sports: the ball, contact-aspects, and how points are scored.

The football is a smaller ball than a rugby ball. Which also means that they are use in different ways. The football is 28cm long, has a circumference of 22cm, and weighs about 0.875lb. In comparison to the rugby ball at 27cm long, a circumference of 60cm, and lastly weighs about 1lb. The American football is skinnier to be able to grip better for the throwing aspect of
the game. They are the same type of shape but one is just longer and skinnier, and the other is shorter and fatter.

There are more differences in the contact aspect of the game than you think. In football you are aloud to pass or hand off the ball and let them run behind the blockers. In rugby you cant do that. There is no blocking for the ball carrier and when they believe they are going down they lateral the ball to another person to run. Now the thing that is the same in the two sports is that the objective is to get the ball carrier down to the ground or try to force a fumble to get the ball by tackling.

Both teams want to score and get points on the board.
That’s how you win in one of these games. There is a difference though. In football when you score it is called a touchdown and all you have to do is run or catch the ball across the opponents goal line. A touchdown is worth 6 points. Then afterwards you get the chance to get extra points by either kicking a field goal for 1 point or going for the 2-point conversion by throwing or passing the ball across the goal line again. In rugby when you score it is called a try and to get one of these you need to run across the opponents goal line and touch the ball in their end zone. A try is worth 5 points. After the try you the chance to score a conversion, which is worth 2 points if you kick the ball between the goal posts, like a field goal in football. This is probably one of the biggest similarities.

There are many other differences between these sports. For example, in football, the game is a series of plays of short bursts of action; after each play both teams then regroup to prepare for the next play. The difference in Rugby is that the action stops for shorter periods of time, this is because after a player is tackled, the ball is quickly rolled to a teammate, and play resumes. Lastly, Rugby is a more international sport, whereas football is played mostly in the continent of North
America.