The Physics of Football

Ponca City, We Love You writes "There will be a program on applied physics and real time strategy that you might want to watch on television today. Conservation of momentum during elastic and inelastic collisions is one aspect on which to focus as players tackle their opponents. It is of critical importance that the Patriots bring down New York's huge and powerful running back, 6-foot-4, 265-pound Brandon Jacobs. An average-size NFL defensive back's mass combined with his speed — on average, 4.56 seconds for the 40-yard dash — can produce up to 1600 pounds of tackling force. A tackle with half a ton of force may sound like a crippling blow, but the body can handle twice that amount because the player's equipment spreads out the incoming energy, lessening its severity." Nanotech specialists from Cornell have developed their own take on the "physics" of the Super Bowl by creating the world's smallest trophy, which will be awarded today to a contestant who best explains an aspect of football physics. Just some food for thought while you watch the game on your brand new HD television, though you'd better not be watching it in a church.

Comments

Go Giants!

[Ang31us]

Momentum = Mass * Velocity Brandon Jacobs is HUGE and runs very fast.

football

[Anonymous Coward]

I didn't even know thay you play football in USA.... Oh, you mean american football. I pity you :)

Re:football

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, its better referred to with the transatlantic portmanteau "fagrugby"

Re:football

[Anonymous Coward]

Pairing two synonyms does not make a portmanteau

For those who are interested..

[run4power]

For those who want to view the submissions, all submissions are uploaded to youtube with the tag "nanobowl".

Wrong title

[Affenkopf]

As an European I'd like to point out that the article is not about football but about some strange American sport where the foot isn't even used (or at least not that often,I have no idea to be honest).

Re:Wrong title

[sayfawa]

I'd like to point out that this blog is written in American (yes, American, not USian) English. A dialect distinct from the English you may be used to. And in this language football is, in fact, the name of the current subject. Complaining that we use the "wrong" words for things is as silly as complaining that the Spaniards say "juegos" instead of "games". It's a different language. Get over it.

Re:Wrong title

[Ang31us]

Hahaha...that's hilarious! New Yorker here (my Giants are playing today)...they kick the ball to open the game (kickoff), after a 6-point score (1 more point after the touchdown), after every score (kickoff), to push the other team back after 3 consecutive failed attempts to advance 10 yards (punt), or to score 3 points if they are within 50 yards of the uprights (field goal).

I'm happy to call it American football if you're okay to call soccer European or world football.

Re:Wrong title

[carpe_noctem]

Yes, but the ball itself somewhat resembles a foot. So by using those terms, it's not the Europeans who are backwards!

Re:Wrong title

[interstellar_donkey]

I find it amusing that the rest of the world sucks up as much American culture as possible, from our music, movies and television shows to going in droves to our crappy McDonald's that are popping up all over the world (hint: McDonald's sucks. Stop going).

But then they get all prissy when we call football football. We call your football soccer, but we call our football football. It's the way we do things over here. If you don't like the names we use for sport, fine. But don't get all in a huff over it.

Re:Wrong title

[drewmoney]

20 out of the top 21 leading point makers of the regular 2007 season are kickers. Guess how they put points on the board.....yeah, they kick the ball. NFL Scoring Stats

Re:Wrong title

[RobBebop]

Yes, but the ball itself somewhat resembles a foot

If this is what your foot looks like, sir, then I suggest you seek the help of a professional foot doctor. Your egg-feet will scare the children.

Re:Wrong title

[Anonymous Coward]

As an American I'd like to point out how hilarious it is when stuffy Europeans get their panties in a bunch over how we improved their language to suit our needs.

Re:Wrong title

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd like to point out that slashdot is also American. This is why we have things like the "American Politics" section.

Re:Wrong title

[Blitz22]

The term "football" probably comes from the fact that the sport is played "on foot" as opposed to on horseback. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football/ So yeah, it IS about football.

Re:Wrong title

[octopus72]

Well your movies, television (and some genres of music) is mostly crap. I can't digest almost anything coming outside of US lately, it's all been going down in quality, idea and performance in last two decades. Unfortunately that kind of media production also seems to be catching up in Europe, so you aren't alone.

While quality stuff seems to be unprofitable. Unfortunately, the 'fun' factor seems to be oveestimated these days, at expense of realism and a good story.

While regarding football, it's just the usual american pride: "We aren't best at it and we don't run that business, so we don't pay much attention to it".

Re:Wrong title

[UnxMully]

I'm happy to call it American football if you're okay to call soccer European or world football.

Feel free. Though I should point out that Soccer is a contraction of Association Football, there's a good article here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_(soccer)#History_and_development, and predates American Football by some time - the first rules being codified in the 1850s. The less charitable among us followers of more robust codes tend to call it Wendyball or poofball, mainly because of all the falling over, rolling about and crying that goes on.

Then there's Rugby Union (football), which dates from around the same time, and the bastard child Rugby League, aka the thickhead crashball game. Not to mention a whole host of other games including a number of forms played in Ireland (Gaelic) which have been played for close to 700 years.

Compared to all of these games, American Football can be considered something of a johny-come-lately.

So call it Football if you want, but the rest of the world differentiates different styles of football even if you're not aware of their existence.

Re:Wrong title

[RiotingPacifist]

yeah its sad that we take so much crap from you: fast food, crappy clothes (nike), stupid cars (hummers), leadership (we should have voted Blair out a long time ago), economic crises (northen rock), software (m$), music (why o why would we by 50c records), movies (indie movies like pans labyrinth are much better), etc
The only thing we dont really care for tbh is the trivial stuff like your sports,
we play 'soccer'( not just England but pretty much every country calls it football), you suck at it
we play rugby, you play 'football'
we play cricket, you play baseball
we do Forumla1, you do nascar
you play ice hockey, but the canadians beat you anyway :P
Ill give you basketball tho, that seams to be popular.

but a nice way to make sure everybody knows what you mean is to use American football and soccer.

Re:Wrong title

[Oktober Sunset]

Wow, it like touches someone feet like a 20 times a game, as opposed to about 20 times in 20 seconds. Also, no-one is using a stupid name like European Football, because unlike the US we are a little more inventive with our sports (as opposed to the only sports invented in the US; rugby with big pads (cos your too girly), netball (girls game) with bouncing and rounders (another girls game) with a big bat, total originality; zero) and there are loads of different types of football here, Association Football is just one of several.

Re:Wrong title

[PietjeJantje]

That's true. Regarding Slashdot, if your target audience is national, "football" is ok..on the other hand if your target audience is international use "American Football", unless you want to communicate you're ignorant of the biggest sport on earth named with the same sequence of letters, and serve your percentage of international viewers a title which means something different to them.

Re:Wrong title

[Anonymous Coward]

You use the language of the retard. Just take another one and change a word or two. The call it "American english". What a laugh.

Re:Wrong title

[Anonymous Coward]

I know! It's so hard to consider context! I need to be spoonfed my stories!

Re:Wrong title

[BgJonson79]

So if you have no idea, why are you complaining about something in which you've confessed you know very little about?

Re:Wrong title

[BgJonson79]

Football is the most popular sport in the world, yes, but popularity != best. For example, GWB was the most popular guy in 2004 and I wouldn'd say we've had four banner years... would you?

Re:Wrong title

[WhatAmIDoingHere]

http://slashdot.org/faq/editorial.shtml#ed850
Slashdot seems to be very U.S.-centric. Do you have any plans to be more international in your scope?

Slashdot is U.S.-centric. We readily admit this, and really don't see it as a problem. Slashdot is run by Americans, after all, and the vast majority of our readership is in the U.S. We're certainly not opposed to doing more international stories, but we don't have any formal plans for making that happen. All we can really tell you is that if you're outside the U.S. and you have news, submit it, and if it looks interesting, we'll post it.

Re:Wrong title

[heinousjay]

Compared to all the people living to today, American football is older. So age is actually nothing meaningful at all in this context.

Of course, I don't get a hard on for knowing something happened a long time ago, and never understood why anybody would, so maybe I'm wrong - but I doubt anyone could give me a factual reason that I am.

Re:Wrong title

[Cederic]

Going to the world as a whole, no, I strongly suspect GWB was not the most popular guy in 2004.

Re:Wrong title

[Anonymous Coward]

The term "football" probably comes from the fact that the sport is played "on foot" as opposed to on horseback.

Yeah, its true - horse is about the only thing they're not on.

Re:Wrong title

[Hektor_Troy]

Well, I don't know about you guys, but I'm definately not playing neither horseball nor donkeyball!

Re:Wrong title

[Anonymous Coward]

netball (girls game) with bouncing... Hey! Americans didn't invent basketball, a Canadian did (James Naismith).

But we canucks didn't really think much of it, and we went back to playing hockey.

Re:Wrong title

[Anonymous Coward]

If you can't even tell a language and a dialect apart (and you obviously can't, given that you refer to US-American English as both), you really shouldn't talk about linguistics. Shut your trap and don't embarass yourself.

Re:Wrong title

[Idiomatik]

Not even in the states was he the most popular. The american idol girl got 70million votes and GWB only got 60~. And from a global perspective GWB is vehemently hated and no1 has heard of the american idol people. And Oprah gets more viewers than GWB's adress the nation speeches. Infact i'm sure more people have seen 2girls1cup than GWBs speeches....

Re:Wrong title

[Shetan]

The strange American sport evolved from Rugby Football, in which the foot isn't used that often either. The name didn't make sense long before the colonists customized it.

Re:Wrong title

[afabbro]

I have no idea to be honest

Thanks for stopping by to share this insightful commentary.

Re:Wrong title

[finiteSet]

If you can't even tell a language and a dialect apart .... you really shouldn't talk about linguistics. Shut your trap and don't embarass yourself.

While it is pretty cut-and-dry for British-vs-American English, the distinction is not always non-controversial. Usually there are political motivations for clouding the distinction, e.g. various "dialects" of Chinese that are mutually unintelligible, or the various Scandinavian "languages" that are to different degrees mutually intelligible (I could go on). Some linguists prefer the term "variety" to avoid the whole dialect-language controversy altogether.

Re:Wrong title

[repvik]

Exactly the same as with handball. Bit more skills needed there ;)

Re:Wrong title

[RincewindTVD]

Football is the most popular sport in the world?

yes... If you mean soccer
no... if you mean american football

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_sport#Countries_by_most_popular_sport

Re:Wrong title

[SilentBob0727]

Whereas you guys say lift, loo, and colour instead of elevator, bathroom, and color, and yet *somehow* we still get the gist of what you're trying to say.

English is a pretty widespread language, and regional/generational variance in any language is completely normal -- that's how languages evolve. There's no "right" version of English, but they don't teach you that until college (that's right, screw you, Junior High English teachers!!).

Re:Wrong title

[Anonymous Coward]

That's a poor excuse for forgetting how to play rugby properly.

Re:Wrong title

[Anonymous Coward]

I like the way you say "American culture" and then list music, movies, tv, McDonalds and NFL as examples of it... Well done for putting the 'moron' back into 'oxymoron'.

Re:Wrong title

[Anonymous Coward]

yeah right, and next you'll be telling us that basketball's a sport as well.

The french word for Soccer by the way is ... Football, and the spanish word for the juego you call soccer is ... futbol, and the German word for soccer is ... Fussball - from the words Fuss, meaning foot, and ball, meaning ball.

The English name for what you call football is "Long drawn out boring thing, a bit like rugby but with lots of padding to stop it hurting, with loads of commercial breaks every two seconds, that only gets played in America, unless they give free tickets out and promise to relay the pitch at their own expense"

Soccer is what you play with your mates in the street, and table soccer is what you call foosball.

Re:Wrong title

[KDR_11k]

I'd also like to shout out to Microsoft for improving HTML to suit their needs...

Re:Wrong title

[KeensMustard]

Have you been in a coma for 40 years? If so, that would explain your basic lack of understanding of the world you live in and share with others.

I find it amusing that the rest of the world sucks up as much American culture as possible, from our music, In my CD stacker: Coldplay, Dire Straits, Bjork, REM, Midnight Oil, Crowded House. I think maybe REM is American.

movies Curious thing. I checked my DVD collection. Maybe 1/3 American. 1/3 not. 1/3 a mix of American and others. Much of what is ostensibly American, turns out to be a mix of a number of cultural influences and participation.

and television shows Couldn't really get a representative sample because I don't watch much TV (although Top Gear is a must watch, along with Mythbusters).

to going in droves to our crappy McDonald's that are popping up all over the world (hint: McDonald's sucks. Stop going). Actually I quite enjoy an occasional visit to McDonalds - I like the thai chicken wrap if it is lunchtime and the espresso is passing grade (good considering how much training the barrista must get) if it is just a short break. Like most people I generally end up at McDonalds because they have outlets on the roads I travel. Notably McDonalds tries to approximate the foods we like to eat - we influence McDonalds, McDonalds doesn't influence us. Hardly the burgeoning frontier of American culture.

But then they get all prissy when we call football football. We call your football soccer, but we call our football football. It's the way we do things over here. If you don't like the names we use for sport, fine. But don't get all in a huff over it. But "we" in this case is the audience and members of /. And We call any number of games football, just like We mostly use metric and not the exaggerated length of the foot of King James II as a unit of measure. For reasons of clarity then, it is necessary to qualify the language used to suit the international audience on this site.

Re:Wrong title

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

As an European I'd like to point out that the article is not about football but about some strange American sport where the foot isn't even used (or at least not that often,I have no idea to be honest). Funny. If I criticized an article because I didn't know what Cricket was, I'd be an ignorant American and modded down.

Re:Wrong title

[cuby]

Why don't slashdot cut the access to foreigners? The site is in America, but it was taken by the world long time ago. Don't you be so isolationist.

Re:Wrong title

[SL Baur]

the article is not about football but about some strange American sport And the "world cup" is some kind of international jock strap, isn't it?

How that can be moderated +5 "informative" is beyond me. Hey moderators, pass the crack pipe!

Re:Wrong title

[CastrTroy]

Which brings up a whole new argument. Do you mean American Football, Association Football, Australian rules Football, Canadian Football, Gaelic football, or Rugby football?

Re:Wrong title

[CastrTroy]

Couldn't that be because there's usually only 1 kicker on the team who actually plays? Of course there's probably a back-up for when he is injured or whatever, but really there's only 1 kicker on each team. Contrast that with the fact that there are many different players on each team who could run the ball in, or catch it in the endzone.

Re:Wrong title

[KeensMustard]

Or maybe the foreigners could stop whining about how an American website talks about American subjects from time to time. Slashdot has American editors. But Slashdot is the readers, contributors and posters, not the editors. Since those three groups by and large are not American, Slashdot is not American either. Time for that basic fact to be reflected in both the editorial policy and the mindset of American contributors.

Re:Wrong title

[Javit]

The FAQ says the "vast majority" of Slashdot's readership is in the US: http://slashdot.org/faq/editorial.shtml#ed850.

Re:Wrong title

[Anonymous Coward]

Parent is neither insightful nor informative - he's just trolling.

Re:Wrong title

[KeensMustard]

The FAQ is wrong and needs updating.

Re:Wrong title

[aproposofwhat]

If you watched the England-Wales home international on Saturday (twll du pob Sais!), you'd have seen an awful lot of the use of the boot, mainly by England giving posession away.

Bloody marvellous, it was!

Re:Wrong title

[malsdavis]

Bloody good game it was too!

England were way too confident by the 2nd half, Wales deserved the win.

Can't wait for the rest of the 6 nations tournament.

Re:Wrong title

[mike2R]

The point is that we're not complaining about the US centric nature of slashdot. We're just complaining about calling American Football "Football" at all. It's a silly name let's face it. Wimps Rugby would be my proposal :)

Re:Wrong title

[ChameleonDave]

"American website" is an oxymoron. The "web" part stands for the World Wide Web. In what meaningful sense is this site American? I once made a website for an Australian with a business based in France. I wrote it in three languages, clearly and without dialectal usage. I expressed all prices in a variety of currencies, and expressed all measurements in both metric and imperial units. When customers gave their address, there was no assumption made about what country they might be ordering the product from. It would never have occurred to me to be such a wanker as to declare, "Sorry, this is a French site, so we only use these units, etc."

Re:Wrong title

[IRGlover]

I would just like to make it known that I have never, and will never, use the word 'loo'. It is a pointless euphemism only used by the ever-squemish middle-class. The word 'toilet' is far superior (and more accurate for those who have constipation!) and has the bonus of being easily translatable to other languages, e.g. French.

Bathroom is often an inaccurate word to use as there are few public places that actually have baths next to the stalls/traps and (if you're male) urinals/troughs. It is another pointless euphemism, and one that has the (very limited) potential to confuse.

Re:Wrong title

[Anonymous Coward]

I find it amusing that the rest of the world sucks up as much American culture as possible, from our music, movies and television shows to going in droves to our crappy McDonald's

We all listen to your music, watch your movies and TV shows, eat your crappy McDonalds, after all that love and money we give the US, the least you could do would be to call our football what it is. But don't name your game after ours, there's no need to thank us that much.

Re:Wrong title

[SilentBob0727]

Linguistic preferences aside... bash it all you want. People are still going to use it.

While I'll agree that it's inaccurate, "bathroom" is so ubiquitous here in the states that there's almost no chance of confusion.

Re:Wrong title

[MBGMorden]

Yes but if it were split a still very respectable percentage of points in most games does indeed come from kicks, either from a field goal or from the extra point attempt that accompanies almost every touchdown (2 point conversion attempts are rare and usually only tried when a team REALLY needs that extra point).

Bottom line is that we call that sport football. Soccer has such a small popularity base over here (not that I care one way or another, but it's seen by many as somewhat of a "pansy" or "weak-man" sport) that you'll never get us (at least not for several generations) to qualify the usage of the name of the most popular sport in the country for fear of associating it with a very minor sport that almost no one (here) cares about.

Re:Wrong title

[MBGMorden]

And if you so wish, there is always "restroom" which is in pretty common usage as well, and has no reference to "bath". Still, you are correct that "bathroom" is pretty well understood to be "the place where you poop", with the simple understanding that if it's at home (or somewhere like a hotel room or some truck stops) there will be a bathtub present and in most public places there won't be.

If the real world usage of the word causes no confusion then any predicted confusion on paper is using the wrong set of criteria to predict confusion.

Re:Wrong title

[Chutulu]

yeah they play ice hockey but the rest of the world plays hockey but not on ice....

Re:Wrong title

[Anonymous Coward]

Bunch of potty mouths, here!

Re:Wrong title

[rjshields]

"restroom"

Yeah, remind me of that next time I fancy a nap in a urinal.

Re:Wrong title

[Anonymous Coward]

It might help if you actually have a look at the wikipedia article;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football#Medieval_and_early_modern_Europe

Dumbass.

Re:Wrong title

[Anonymous Coward]

American Football teams do a fair amount of booting the ball away in a change of possesion themselves.

Re:Wrong title

[WhatAmIDoingHere]

Here in the states, where slashdot is located, we call Football Football and nobody talks about Rugby or Soccer.

Re:Wrong title

[enderjsv]

what? You've never?

Re:Wrong title

[drewmoney]

Couldn't that be because there's usually only 1 kicker on the team who actually plays?

Possibly, but even if the points were spread evenly across two or even three equally good kickers (they aren't usually, that is why there is one starter) the points would remain the same. The points would have still been scored by a football being kicked.

My comment was a response to the original poster:

As an European I'd like to point out that the article is not about football but about some strange American sport where the foot isn't even used (or at least not that often,I have no idea to be honest).

Re:Wrong title

[Kvasio]

the "vast majority" of ICANN is also in the US, I'd say 100%; but does it make all internet American?

Re:Wrong title

[FiloEleven]

Well yes, but that's because the meaning of the word "cricket" is perfectly unambiguous to everyone. It's not like the sport shares its name with something completely unrelated, like, say, a small nocturnal insect, or a dart game, or a children's magazine, or a ridge structure designed to divert water on a roof, or an early American automobile model.

Re:Wrong title

[Javit]

No. What's your point?

Brandon Jacobs trucks Charles Woodson

[Ang31us]

While we're on the topic, check out the clip of Brandon Jacobs opening up a can on whup-ass in the first play of the game two weeks ago in Green Bay. Note 265 lbs of running-back muscle flattens the tiny little corner-back. :-)

Re:Brandon Jacobs trucks Charles Woodson

[AndGodSed]

I still wonder why people still play rugby without the aids NFL athletes have...

Re:Brandon Jacobs trucks Charles Woodson

[KDR_11k]

Cause HIV isn't very helpful for getting some cheerleader ass?

Why bother with physics when you can just cheat?

[Anonymous Coward]

Why bother with physics when you can just cheat?

Seriously, what happened with that? The NFL confiscates a bunch of tapes from the Patriots, then destroys them without any comment. Just how much of an advantage did the Patriots get? How much of their undefeated streak is due to ongoing cheating? Why won't anybody in the MSM cover these stories?!

Go Giants, go fair play!

Watch Sport Science

[sponga]

There is a show called 'Sport Science' on Fox Sports where they take all these extreme athletes of all types of sports in America like NBA, NFL, NHL, I.R.L., softball, soccer, billards and it goes on. The text article is nice but they provide so much more info on the show and visual demonstrations with great players like Jerry Rice, Ben Roathlisberger

The MMA one is a really interesting one when you have Bas Rutten making the scientest jaws drop with the amount of pressure they hit a target. One hit I remember broke the 1000lbs of force and they were telling these guys that they are throwing concussion hits.

Good episodes like...
Human Flight: Who Are The Highest Flyers in Sports?
Sudden Impact: Who Hits the Hardest in Sports?
Reaction Time: Who Reacts the Fastest in Sports?
Cheap Shots: What does a Cheap Shot feel like in Sports?
Out of Control: Elements of the Game you can't Control

Rugby...

[Bazman]

England could do with some of those guys in their rugby team, assuming they don't mind playing without helmets and body armour - oh, and multi-million pound/dollar sponsorship deals...

So no chance then.

Re:Rugby...

[Anonymous Coward]

to be fair american football is bit of a girly sport, now rugby that's a man's sport

Re:Rugby...

[Anonymous Coward]

And you can't play either of them.

Re:Rugby...

[EaglemanBSA]

LOL while I'll give you that rugby certainly is a rough sport, the contact in football's a little different. I myself have dislocated a shoulder and wrecked an ankle playing, and I know people who have split their fiberglass helmets, broken other people's arms with their facemasks (which are steel, btw), and the like.

I tire of people assuming because the players are wearing pads, it's kids play. Scrum? Try getting a 1-yard head start and see what the impact difference is like. If that doesn't convince you, an inside linebacker usually has more like 4-5 yards. Also, most football (not soccer) players are notably larger than rugby players (e.g.: a guard, loosely the brother of a tighthead prop in rugby, will usually weigh around 300-350 lbs [21-25 stone for the Brits in the audience], compared to 220-275 lbs for a prop [16-20 stone]). Just my 2 cents.

Re:Rugby...

[pbhj]

>>> usually weigh around 300-350 lbs [21-25 stone for the Brits in the audience]

We've been metric since before I was born, I'm 31. I'll let you off though as no-one over here seems to have noticed either.

So it's 135-160 Kg, thanks.

Re:Rugby...

[Durf]

I've seen rugby played, and there are no rugs involved at all. Who gave it that idiotic name?

Re:Rugby...

[The One and Only]

I've met lots of girls who played rugby. Only one who ever played football. Anyway, our men play football because we leave rugby and soccer to our girls.

Re:Rugby...

[Anonymous Coward]

Add to that the 350 lb lineman even runs faster than the 200 lb rugby player. The momentum involved in football is an order of magnitude greater than that of rugby.

Re:Rugby...

[MBGMorden]

Hmm. The BBC guys still seem mighty quick to announce weight in "stone" on all the programs I've seen. So my guess is they either have a secret agenda or your old system is still a little more commonly used than you'd let on.

Re:Rugby...

[BlackSnake112]

I don't know if I should be scared of the the girls in your country or look for a female bodyguard there.

Re:Rugby...

[pbhj]

Me >>> I'll let you off though as no-one over here seems to have noticed either.

Old habits die hard. The government at the time refused to be hardline about it and so we have a continuing roll-out 30+ years later.

Re:Rugby...

[enderjsv]

What age is 31 in metric?

Re:Rugby...

[CFTM]

Hello Anonymous Coward who clearly has never played both Rugby and American Football; American Football is far far far more violent then Rugby could ever be. Why? Because you wear pads. Pads and helmets give the player a feeling of invincibility hence they fly in to tackles at full speed with reckless abandon. Any rugby coach worth his salt, will yank a guy out of practice and teach him NOT to tackle like that. Why? Because first, you'll be breaking your nose when tackling and second you'll break your spine if you come in that hard with improper form.

Rugby has lots of cosmetic injuries; lots of bruises, lots of scratches, lots of blood on jearsey's. My experience was, serious injuries had to do with torn ACL, MCL and PCL's. Not good injuries to have but I never met a rugby player who lacerated organs because a hit was so hard (probably has happened but it's rare, happens about 5-6 times a year in the NFL).

Here's a great way to think of it, Rugby is a contact sport. There's lots of contact, lots of hitting but the mechanics of the game make it so field position is relatively unimportant and possession is everything. American Football is the exact opposite, field position is everything and possession is not nearly as important. You don't get first downs in Rugby, you just need to keep the ball in your teams possession and as long as you don't turn things in to a total clusterf&ck the ref let things happen. American Football, you get four downs to get ten yards, if you don't you lose possession thus football has become a collision sport. You need to hit the guy with the ball so hard that he doesn't move another inch, only inside the five meter line in rugby does that matter.

Re:Rugby...

[The One and Only]

Well, at the time (I was 16 so my judgment was questionable) they seemed fairly attractive. The bruises just added to the effect.

the scale from 0-150

[Anonymous Coward]

Wonder why they didn't include automobile accidental impacts on the chart...
Off the chart perhaps?
Curiosity...

Apparently theres a game on today

[Anonymous Coward]

I cant wait till its over so everyone will shut up about it.

Hey, I'd love to watch it.

[Anonymous Coward]

What channel is it on? BBC1? BBC2?

Re:Hey, I'd love to watch it.

[Anonymous Coward]

BBC2 10:50pm

Re:Slow news day

[Robber Baron]

Must be a slow news day. This is neither "news for nerds" nor "stuff that matters". Sure it is. Now when the jocks beat you up or stuff you in a locker, at least you'll understand a little of the physics behind it.

Oh? Is there a football game today?

[thomasdz]

I know there's a bunch of really good commercials showing up on YouTube today, but I didn't know that there was a football game today.

More physics

[PPH]

I will be conducting a careful study of wave propagation through viscous silicone mediums subject to oscillating vertical acceleration.

Re:More physics

[Anonymous Coward]

I too will be watching porn instead of this "superbowl" thing.

Re:Why bother with physics when you can just cheat

[Anonymous Coward]

Because no one cares, except people who like to pretend that football has some kind of significance beyond just being gladiator-style entertainment.

Fast downloads

[Nexus7]

I, for one, will be getting fast downloads during the game. I'll be receiving an 15-20 Mbps MPEG-TS stream (after conversion) containing the live game broadcast from my antenna.

Re:Why bother with physics when you can just cheat

[Ang31us]

Of course, the Patriots won't need an asterisk if the Giants somehow pull off the un-thinkable this evening.

Re:For those OUTSIDE of the USA

[KTheorem]

The majority of native English speakers are American. So to most of the English speaking world, football is the game played with the oblong ball and soccer is the one with the round one. If you insist on using a minority dialect of English you should really stop being so sensitive when the majority doesn't use it.

Gosh.

[morari]

Even on Slashdot, I can't escape mention of that ridiculous institution that is professional sports.

Re:Slow news day

[plopez]

That whooshing sound was the joke going over the moderators, and other posters, heads.

Re:For those OUTSIDE of the USA

[jeremyp]

Yes but the majority of the non English speaking World also use the word "football" or some variant thereof to refer to soccer rather than the pansy version of rugby that you use to stop the advertising breaks from running together.

Without the pads?

[Anonymous Coward]

And this is what half a tonne of force looks like without the protective gear.

Re:Without the pads?

[SimonTheSoundMan]

Dear Americans, the parent of this post has linked to a normal tackle in a sport called rugby.
<br><br>What looses me is, why do americans have to wear padding? Why do they run 5m, and stop for 10 minutes?

Re:Without the pads?

[Anonymous Coward]

The pad question I can answer. We had a science teacher who was also the football coach. He liked to read us football stories. I'm only telling you this so you can judge the truthiness for yourself. It seems that deaths were pretty common in the first few decades of american football. So much so that the game risked being outlawed. So some clever guys added helmets and pads to cut down on the mortality rate and save their beloved game. The gear evolved from there in a sort of arms race environment. Better protective equipment meant harder hits were not only allowed, but encouraged, which encourage the use of better equipment, and so on. So now we are left with huge heavily armored guys slamming at maximum speed into each other. And living.

Re:Without the pads?

[drcagn]

Bait, but I guess I'll bite...

Padding allows the players to do more than their Rugby counterparts. I've heard this argument a thousand times, but the truth is that if the players have padding, they will play harder to compensate. If you give your rugby players padding, will they play the same way or will they play harder? It's a different focus on playing. American football and Rugby are different sports, even if they are closely related.

In addition, American Football is more about the strategy in moving the ball than Rugby is. There is time between each play for the players to talk strategy and swap benched players. This is 45 seconds in the NFL, 25 seconds in college. The stadium screens and television networks usually play a replay of the previous play from angles to show the viewers exactly what happened the last play, which is often necessary to completely understand what happened.

If you don't like American football, that's fine. We Americans really aren't offended nor do we care. But I think both American football and Rugby are respectable, but different, sports. That goes for soccer, too.

Re:Without the pads?

[repvik]

Padding allows the players to do more than their Rugby counterparts. I've heard this argument a thousand times, but the truth is that if the players have padding, they will play harder to compensate. If you give your rugby players padding, will they play the same way or will they play harder? It's a different focus on playing. American football and Rugby are different sports, even if they are closely related.

Player injuries are also reduced from 157.7 to 16 injuries per 1000h played. On the upside, you're about twice as likely to die from the injuries in american football as in rugby. I still mean that american football is rugby for wee little girlies.

Re:Without the pads?

[seven7h]

Dear Unknown Nationality

The grandparent post is actually liking to an average tackle from a sport calle Rugby League (Or league for short).

Re:Without the pads?

[Anonymous Coward]

Not quite - as you say, the 'play-by-play' nature of the game changes things too.

Rugby players tend to have a lot more stamina and overall fitness (they're expected to last a 40 minute half without stopping).
American Football players tend to have a lot more bulk (as they rest between each play) - they need only short bursts of enegry. Thus, the players optimise their physique for short bursts (anerobic enegry expenditure rather than areobic.)

That's why American Football looks so boring to a New Zealander - we're used to the all blacks which just keep going as much as possible. It's a different sort of game, really. There is stragey in Rugby, but it's a think-on-your-feet strategy with planning at half-time and pre-match, whereas American Football always reminds me of playing chess with bigger pawns. :)

I actually don't think an American Football player would last in a full rugby game; but conversely I doubt a rugby player would escape unscathed from an american football tackle.

Re:Without the pads?

[aproposofwhat]

Actually, it's quite common (more so in League than Union) for players to wear padding under the shirt - it's not in any way as heavy as that used in American Football, but it's there.

I used to play Union, love watching both codes, but will be watching the game tonight and rooting for the Giants (New Englanders are so snooty :P).

It's different to rugby, but some of us in the UK can appreciate the planning and skill of the game - same as we enjoy baseball but play cricket (there was a thriving baseball league in South Wales after WWII, but it died out - my Grandpa used to play).

Re:For those OUTSIDE of the USA

[Anonymous Coward]

WTF? The majority of native English speakers are from America? Get your facts straight. Google for U.S. and Canada population count and then try the same for India. You will find out how stupid you are. If you don't want to do that, then I'll just give you the shocking news that India has approximately 1 billion people and U.S. plus Canada around 340 million. That's 34% of India's population.

Re:Why bother with physics when you can just cheat

[Reverberant]

The Patriots had broken a rule that had recently been explicitly laid out by the league. (See article).

Pats fan here. Yes, the Patriots broke the rules and were punished for it, but let's put this into perspective:

1. It's not against NFL rules to steal signs
2. It's not against NFL rules to steal signs using video cameras
3. It is against NFL rules for clubs to use video-recording equipment outside certain designated areas during games.

The Pats got in trouble for #3, not #1 & 2.

Of course #3 apparently contradicts league guidance on shooting from end zone positions ("but there are no restrictions on shooting from both upper end zone positions as long as the opportunity is provided to both teams") which apparently means there is some room for interpretation.

And c'mon... did they REALLY need to cheat against the Jets? The 4-12 Jets? You would think that wiser head couches would save their cheating for games against stronger teams.

The incident happened in the first half of the first game of the '07 season. In the prior year, the Jets were a playoff team that beat the Patriots in November '06 (which I remember because I was there). There was every reason to expect that the Jets would have been a strong contender this past season.

Honest question

[Anonymous Coward]

Do /.ers really waste time watching football? I thought only idiots did that. It's the same here in Europe with the proprietary soccer thing. There are several studies showing that soccer watchers have an IQ smaller than 70.

Glass

Re:Honest question

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, some /.ers and smart people in the US watch football (as if you couldn't figure that out by reading the threads on this article). The game is more complex than soccer, so I think the IQ requirements are higher.

Re:Honest question

[repvik]

Actually, looking at the incredible amount of "flamebait" and "troll" moderations on posts critical of American Football, it is both obvious that not only does a lot of slashdotters see american football, but they're stupid as hell too.

Re:Honest question

[JimboFBX]

Its a game of strategy and anticipation, as well as skill, reflexes, teamwork, liability, physic, and everyone can pretty much find a useful position on it regardless of your body build. Its very popular once you understand it. Theres a lot of European trolls it seems that get pretty pissed when its "misnamed" (mind you that there is canadian football and australian football as well, and the game was originally very running centric) or because they think the draw of the sport is two people running into each other. Its good that these people are modded trolls and flamebait, because hopefully these people will learn to speak on topics that they actually know about, rather than spout out shit as if they actually have experience. Imagine these same people talking on other (non-sport) topics criticizing someone else's idea much in the same way.

And they do fit the roll of the troll or flamebait because they incite a response by trying to piss people off.

Like you.

Re:For those OUTSIDE of the USA

[Anonymous Coward]

So, you're claiming that everyone in India speaks English? This is contrary to my personal observations.

Re:For those OUTSIDE of the USA

[SimonTheSoundMan]

Then think of how many languages are spoken in India, there are 22 official languages.

Re:For those OUTSIDE of the USA

[Anonymous Coward]

Then think of all the countries with English as their official language. South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Great Britain, etc. Guess how they call "soccer".

Behind the Scenes Equipment Testing

[flyneye]

I personally worked for a paint factory that manufactured the paint that goes on the helmets(Yes,the NFLs helmets made by RYDELL).The problem we were overcoming was the old paint weakened the strength of the helmets causing splits and cracks.Our method of test consisted of 10 ft. of 4inch PVC duct taped to a pillar.At the bottom of the pillar,a box,little bigger than the helmet w/4 inches of foam rubber.The helmet sat in the box and two 10 lb.sledgehammer heads duct taped together were dropped to dent the helmet upon which it was inspected for cracks or splits radiating from the dent.The old paint wouldn't withstand a single hammer head.Ours withstood both in the end.
          Cost of research,less than $50 U.S. Scienterrific,huh?

Re:Behind the Scenes Equipment Testing

[glitch23]

I personally worked for a paint factory that manufactured the paint that goes on the helmets(Yes,the NFLs helmets made by RYDELL).

Actually, NFL helmets are made by Riddell.

Re:Behind the Scenes Equipment Testing

[flyneye]

What,are you a spelling Nazi or some grandmother?

Re:Behind the Scenes Equipment Testing

[glitch23]

What,are you a spelling Nazi or some grandmother?

What are you, a spelling Nazi Nazi or some grandmother?

Re:Why bother with physics when you can just cheat

[Ang31us]

I really do like your analysis, Reverberant, but I also want you to know that your "perfect" Patriots are overdue for a loss (that's as close to a flame war as I will get on Superbowl Sunday).

Also, did you know that Hitler is a Cowboys fan? ;-)

Re:For those OUTSIDE of the USA

[Anonymous Coward]

What is being played today is NOT Football as the rest of the world knows it. That's ok. Apology accepted.

Arguments about words asside, why is it on Sunday?

[WarwickRyan]

Really, why do you guys play it Sunday evenining? It'd make way more sense to play on Saturdays - then you could all stay up late and get real pissed. Plus, then those of us who live in Europe could join in the fun.

Heck, after England's second half performance against Wales, I needed something to cheer me up. Superbowl would have been perfect.

Rugbyforpansies?

[stewbacca]

AS for the rugbyforpansies tag...nice try. It seems like every English rugby player who tries to make it in the NFL usually ends up in the strong safety position. Too small to play linebacker, too slow to play defensive back, and absolutely no individual skills (other than smashing into other humans). Perhaps American Football is rubygforpansies, but funny how many ex-rugbyers are third on the depth charts and playing on kick coverage.

The best part of my post is that those who apply the rugbyforpansies tag have no idea what any of it means ;-)

Re:Rugbyforpansies?

[oojimaflib]

AS for the rugbyforpansies tag...nice try. It seems like every English rugby player who tries to make it in the NFL usually ends up in the strong safety position. Too small to play linebacker, too slow to play defensive back, and absolutely no individual skills (other than smashing into other humans). Perhaps American Football is rubygforpansies, but funny how many ex-rugbyers are third on the depth charts and playing on kick coverage. Forgive my ignorance here, as I know little of American Football, but as I understand it your argument is this: American Football is not rugby for pansies because the only rugby players that play American Football are pansies... I struggle to comprehend the point you are trying to make.

Note: I shall not take a view on the pansiness of American Football myself as, in my opinion, if you play either sport you are a) not a pansy and b) need your head examined.

Re:Rugbyforpansies?

[minorproblem]

I don't understand why people compare the two, the types of tackles between Union and American Football are completly diffrent and they have completly diffrent rules. Hence why one has helmets and padding and the other one doesn't.

Re:Rugbyforpansies?

[Neoprofin]

Witty, but I don't know whether you intentionally missed the point for the sake of it or whether you're actually confused, so I'll bite.

His point was that rugby fans call football rugby for pussies, but rugby players who actually attempt to play football are quickly relegated to being backups or put at positions that demand very little skill because they're unfit to play the rest. No one said that the only rugby players that play football are pussies, just that rugby players lack the skill, size, or speed, to play football.

If you feel like doing a little wikipedia reading, back when Rugby was an Olympic sport the entire US team was generally just some football players they rounded up before the games, and they were incredibly successful.

Re:Rugbyforpansies?

[CmdrGravy]

Incredibly successful ? They beat the one other country who had entered - France.

As to the parents point about rugby players making only mediocre American Football players; like duh ! What do you expect they've spent most of their lives playing a totally different code of sport of course they're not going to be as skilled in some of the more specialist positions than players who have spent all their lives simply training for that position. Having said that they do seem to be more successful than the American Football players who convert to Rugby. And lastly how much have American Football teams offered Johnny Wilkinson to come and kick for them ?

Re:Rugbyforpansies?

[stewbacca]

Not to mention American football player are bigger, faster, stronger and more skilled.

Re:Slow news day

[repvik]

Nah, the moderators are in a very bad mood today. Especially if one makes comments about "football" in this case being "American Football" (otherwise known as rugby for girls). That's guaranteed a -1 Troll or -1 Flamebait mod ;)

Re:Arguments about words asside, why is it on Sund

[barzok]

I agree. It makes having a party for the game with me, my wife, and 10 of our closest friends, on our 55.9 inch screen (so as to not run afoul of the No Fun League's lawyers) pretty difficult.

I think it's just done on Sunday because Sunday is traditionally pro football day.

Re: why not Saturday?

[Anonymous Coward]

To clarify what was said in http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=440450&cid=22284928 about "pro" day:

American football takes place on both Saturdays and Sundays during the football seasons (~September thru ~ January). College football is played on Saturdays, and professional (mostly synonymous with NFL) football is played on Sundays. High school football is played on Friday nights. The NFL season ends later than the college season, so indeed Saturdays are free for pro football starting in December and the NFL holds playoff games on both Saturdays and Sundays. The NFL also has a single "featured" game on Monday nights, and some Thursdays too of late.

As far as the effects of after-game celebration the day after: people seem to get away with a lot on Monday-After-Superbowl as it's often considered a day of amnesty by the cultural magnitude the event has. "The Superbowl" is no longer just a game, but a massive cultural event in this country that far transcends the sport and its followers. Superbowl Sunday is a holiday in all but official name.

1600lbs = 1/2 ton??

[ecavalli]

Maybe I'm doing the math wrong, but I've always been led to believe that 1600 pounds is a hell of a lot more than half a ton. In fact, it's 60% more than half.

Anyone wanna tell me what I'm missing in that summary?

Re:For those OUTSIDE of the USA

[Anonymous Coward]

The educated urban class in India does tend to know English. I once trained developers in Hyderabad. About half of them were local and spoke Telugu, and half had relocated from outside Andhra Pradesh and spoke Hindi. Nobody knew both, so around the office they fell back on ... English. Even the housekeeper knew a little English, though the driver almost none.

It's Jonah Lomu, all over again

[LadyLucky]

If you haven't seen it, his classic try against England in 95.

OK, let's quote John Cleese

[woodengod]

... from "The art of football from A to Z. About "soccer":

Why call soccer, it is football. It is struck with the foot. The clue is in the foot

And about the "american football":

It is not really a ball at all, it is carried around by hand, thrown round by hand and people catch with their hands. Only one person ever kicks and he has to be brought on especially to do it. I guess though it is a form of creativity though saying one thing and meaning something completely different...

They're not critical.

[Ayanami Rei]

They just spout the same old bullshit arguments about how:
1) American Football is misnamed.
2) It's a wussy game (woo rugby)
3) It's for retards.
4) Too many breaks
5) Companies spend a lot of money on marketing THEY ARE EVIL HURRRR

I'm not going to address these comments because they are loaded or strawmen and others have done it better than me. I think it's great. It's a lot of fun to watch and talk about, and I hope the Giants win today. The rest of you haters can go back to whatever the hell you were doing.

Oooh the Tuck of the Giants just got an interception! WOOOO

Re:Arguments about words asside, why is it on Sund

[beat-ofen]

I don't know... I hate this. I love American Football, but here in Germany, its 2 am. and I have to work tomorrow. This sux.
PS: Patriots will win :D

More turn-based than real-time...

[Langfat]

I always thought of American football more as a turn-based strategy than RTS -- after all, there's a break after every play and each team gets to choose their next move before they try it out. Stuff like soccer or hockey feels much more 'RTS' to me with the constant motion back and forth, and being a turn-based fan, perhaps that's the reason I enjoy watching American football more than most other team sports.

Because Saturday is College Football day

[Anonymous Coward]

I think it's part of the anti-trust exemption granted to the NFL that they don't compete on Fridays or Saturdays because of High School and College football, respectively.

Re:Arguments about words asside, why is it on Sund

[ZombieRoboNinja]

If it was Saturday we Hasidic Jews couldn't turn on our TVs, you insensitive clod!

CHEATERS NEVER WIN

[Anonymous Coward]

What do you know, it remains true:

CHEATERS NEVER WIN!

Which is especially poignant given the attempts by the Patriots to win yards by exploiting loopholes in the rules.

CHEATERS NEVER WIN

[Anonymous Coward]

Except they won't, because

CHEATERS NEVER WIN!

It's nice to see justice finally prevail. Why they were allowed to continue unchecked for so long I'll never know.

Re:For those OUTSIDE of the USA

[Anonymous Coward]

New Zealand calls it "Soccer."

"Football" means 'any of the many sports that are played by kicking a ball.' Variously, that includes Grid Iron/American Football, Aussie Rules/Australian Football/AFL, Rugby Union, Rugby League and/or Soccer, depending on context.

We usually use a word more specific than 'football' unless it's obivous from context which we're talking about.

(Yeah, Grid Iron might be an old term stateside. We don't care. :)

Rugby league

[Anonymous Coward]

A tackle with half a ton of force may sound like a crippling blow, but the body can handle twice that amount because the player's equipment spreads out the incoming energy, lessening its severity. Meh, try this then complain about crippling blows. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rugby_league/

Re:Why bother with physics when you can just cheat

[amliebsch]

+1 Prescient! W00t w00t!

Re:Why bother with physics when you can just cheat

[RobBebop]

That YouTube Hitler video was good. I like when he says, "At least I can still see the Patriots make history with a perfect season."

And in your other reply to me, you said "if the Giants can do the unthinkable." Well... I've been saying for about two months that the Patriots are a one dimension team (that dimension, being "Passing"). Ask Peyton Manning how great it was to have a one dimensional team in 2004. Sure, he got 49 TD passes in the regular season, but none in the second round of the playoffs and the Colts were beaten easily by the Patriots 20-3... to be knocked out of the playoffs.

So yeah... one dimensional teams are beatable.

Then again, hindsight is 20/20 and in the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl I wouldn't have run my mouth to badly out of fear of embarrassment of being ultimately proved wrong. But I must say, being proved right is grand!

btw... real Giants fan here.

Of course, I'll probably get modded Flamebait again for talking Football on a "News for Nerds" site... so I will at least point out that I am typing this from a laptop running Ubuntu (you know, to appease the mods).

MOD PARENT UP

[Anonymous Coward]

Thanks for that mate, brilliant. That bloke hits like a train.

most popular

[BlackSnake112]

Does most popular mean most watched? I thought a different 'sport' had that title? The one where some people drive 'cars' really fast around tracks. And a lot of poeple weatch it at the track and on TV.

Other then the commercial or news highlight I have yet to actually watch nascar or any other kind of car race (morning/evening rush hour does not count) I thought it was title the most watched sport in the world?

Most popular == most watched?
or
Most popular == most money made by a sport?