Rugby Union, Rugby League, NFL, Australian Rules or International Rules?

[RobertE]

Having played both rugby and collegiate football, I will tell you that American football is much more violent. Orders of magnitude more violent. Every single play ends in a bone crushing hit for someone. Every. Single. Play. Without exception. Even a false start has collisions. Offensive and defensive lineman punish each other severely. I palyed safety in college, and the worst collisions I experienced weren't laying out a receiver over the middle (I suspect I experienced more than 75-100 concussions doing that) but rather running at full speed into a 350 lb offensive tackle on a fire zone blitz.

In fact, one of the thoughts on how to make the sport less dangerous is to actually get rid of helmets and pads like rugby or AFL. The thought is that the helmets give a false sense of safety and that the hits would be less severe and athletes would take less risks.

Off-topic, but I think I may have found a sport that is probably the most dangerous in the world and that is the Isle of Man TT. 




Perhaps you won't watch the whole thing, but when you hear the sound at 7:01 like a "whoosh", that tells you how close he was to coming off the bike. 









Full volume for the ride bys.