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The great game of rugby league will hit the USA when the 2024 NRL season kicks off in Las Vegas with a historic double header.
Allegiant Stadium will host the event, just three weeks after it held the crown jewel of American football – the Super Bowl.
The NRL’s foray into the US poses a question, one that has sparked fierce debate for years — which sport is tougher, rugby league or American football?
We’d say the Americans commonly engage in such musings, but we’d be lying. At the moment, rugby league is just a blip on their radar.
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Hopefully, the NRL’s five-year deal (worth $200 million) to play matches in the US will grow the game over there. Given that 10 games are set to be broadcast on US channel Fox Sports until 2028, that sort of exposure means there’s every chance it will.
In the meantime, let’s start the debate ourselves.
THE DIFFERENCES
While both contact sports that can be particularly brutal, there are many differences between rugby league and American football.
League is played on a 100m long field, which is roughly 68m wide while American football takes place on a field that is 91m long but is only 50m wide.
The one gripe many Aussies have with the NFL is how stop-start it is. After each play or down in American football, the game essentially halts as teams set up for the next down.
Obviously, rugby league is far more free flowing, meaning players require very good aerobic fitness with some essentially on the move for 80 minutes.
That’s not the case in American football, which moves at a much slower pace and is comprised of repetitive and short, explosive bursts of strength, speed and agility.
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Even with all the stoppages, each NFL team will carry a roster of 45 players on game day, with roughly 20-21 players used on offence and the about the same number of players available on defence.
There are unlimited interchanges, with players sometime switching in and out each play.
Whereas in league, there are only up to 18 players used by each time and all players are required to attack and defend.
However, the major point league fans like to use when trying to win this argument over is the use of padding and protective gear used in NFL…
PADS/NO PADS ARGUMENT
On the surface, the fact rugby league players don’t wear pads (except for those who wear headgear) and NFL players do, in addition to the point above that league is played at a much quicker pace, it seems an open and shut case that our great game is the tougher sport.
It’s not that simple though.
There’s absolutely no question that in any given NFL tackle has the potential to be more vicious and violent.
Rugby league has its fair share of bone-rattling hits and when two huge bodies collide, it’s enough to make the earth shake.
But compared to American football, league is played in close quarters, with all players bar the defensive fullback starting a tackle within 20 metres of each other.
That limits the ferocity of the hits when juxtaposed with where American football players start a play.
It’s not uncommon to see players run halfway across the field – in any direction – to make a tackle, sometimes leading with their head and the crown of the helmet.
Essentially, the helmet is used as a weapon and gives players a licence to hit what they see move with reckless abandon.
This can obviously cause scary and violent collisions in the sport which would result in extremely serious injuries (or worse) every game if the players weren’t wearing pads.
It’s worth noting that much like the NRL has done in recent years in cleaning up ugly tackles or hits with strict amendments to the rule book, the NFL has also made changes which harshly penalises players on-field and financially for hits to the head.
OPINIONS
There have been many professional athletes who have put forward their thoughts on the matter.
But the one that probably holds the most weight is that of Philadelphia Eagles left tackle Jordan Mailata.
Mailata, who grew up in Sydney and played rugby league as a junior, would go onto play 12 games for the Rabbitohs under 20 side in 2017.
He was told in no uncertain terms that his huge frame and fitness levels didn’t lend itself to rugby league and that he should “play a sport that appreciates his size”.
He did just that.
Entering the NFL through the International Pathway Program, Mailata was an extremely quick learn, so much so that in less than a year, the Eagles took a late round flyer on the raw product.
Mailata was asked to compare rugby league and American football on Eagles’ teammate Jason Kelce’s New Heights podcast that he hosts with his brother Travis.
He was pretty clear on what he believed was the tougher sport.
“If you play O-line (offensive line) or D-line (defensive line) it’s tougher than rugby (league). Because the pads don’t do s***,” Mailata said.
“When people are like, “You guys wear pads? You’re a bunch of p***ies”, I say what?
“The pad that goes on your chest is really thin and you’re coping a helmet to the sternum. That stuff hurts, then in three seconds, you got to do it all again… it’s a mini-car crash every three seconds or 40 seconds. That hurts, dude.
“Rugby (league) is a tough sport. NFL players do play rugby, which is a lot about endurance and technique.
“A lot of players do get confused when it comes to differences. It is a tough sport, and you do need to conserve your energy. Rugby is all about hits, and it’s all about running through everybody.”
Jason Kelce believes that rugby players wouldn’t have a chance in the NFL, but not because they aren’t tough enough, but more that the two games are completely different.
“Do rugby players have a chance in the NFL? Absolutely not,” Kelce said on his New Heights podcast.
“It’s a much different game. People keep comparing the two.
“There’s one common skillet and that’s toughness.
“In rugby, there’s not like any stoppages but it’s not as high impact.
“Physicality of the two sports are different. Rugby you aren’t wearing pads so each hit is going to hurt a little bit more.
“You see those guys banged up and bleeding all the time. They are bleeding, they are bandaged up, their fingers are torn up, their ears are torn up.
“The NFL though, because of the pads, the collisions are just much more forceful and you don’t see as much of the gruesome features that you see in rugby.
“What is tougher? Ah it’s a hard one. Conventional metrics, I’m probably going rugby.”
Kelce went onto use a good analogy to describe the different types of contact experienced in l
“Would you rather get punched in the face ten times, or would you rather a Nissan Sedan run you over?” he said.
“Rugby is like you get punched in the face ten times. You don’t have pads on, it’s going to hurt, you have to be a tough guy to take a hit.
“The Nissan Sedan, you’re going to wear pads, but it’s going to run you over. And that’s a football collision.”
UFC champion Alex Volkanowski has also weighed in on the matter.
‘Volk’ played rugby league semi-professionally in NSW before venturing on a path to combat sports, where he is now one of the most recognised and popular names in the UFC.
As is his profile in the USA, he was asked by a co-host of the Impaulsive podcast about his rugby league background and whether he believed the sport was tougher than American football.
“In NFL you got the blockers (offensive line), I was pretty much playing that type of position (prop),” the Aussie said.
“All contact sports are brutal, but (rugby league) is definitely up there.
“Obviously NFL is pretty brutal but rugby league is non-stop action, and you are always running pretty much, so it’s pretty physical
“Sometimes I’ll do a bit of wrestling with the (NRL) guys and sometimes I watch their training sessions and I’m like ‘f**k I’m glad I’m not doing that anymore’”
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VERDICT
We are preferring to stay out of this one.
While both games may appear similar to the untrained eye, these are two completely different sports that requires unique skillsets and contrasting types of toughness.
The ability of a rugby league player to go for eighty minutes while tackling and running the whole game must be commended.
On the other hand, in American football, to possess the bravery to face away from the defence and catch a ball knowing full well there are players honing in on you with speed from all angles, isn’t for the faint hearted.
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