re: NFL set to look more like CFL?

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I watched rugby for the first time today and was blown away at how they'd tackle. It was so beautiful.

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Yeah, it's a lot easier to square up and break down and make a form tackle in Rugby w/o getting juked and looking like a fool. It's still a relative CC sport - like tackling Alabama's 60's title teams.

Try that style of shoulder high and slowing down to square up with Adrian Peterson or Barry Sanders back in the day. See ya.

Actually trying to square up with someone will help you not get juked.

They need to go back to leather helmets. Nobody will be launching themselves without all that extra padding in their helmets.

Goodell is ruining the game in a remarkable pace.

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According to the report, the NFL competition committee considered widening the field at meetings last year and speculation is they will toss around the possibility again. CFL fields are 195 feet wide, while NFL fields are 160 feet wide, a difference of 35 feet.

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I would be ok with a compromise

Maybe just make it 10 feet wider instead of the full 35 feet

Would make things more difficult on defenses though

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Ohand make tthem sign a waiver before playing... No need to make this shite into a 60-55 game every week by completely altering the game.

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Have fun with that in Louisiana.

They aren't worth the paper they are printed on.

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Interesting to hear the back and forth with player safety. Almost everyone agrees that changes can and should be made to further the safety of the players, but every single time someone makes a proposal, OMFG, THEY'RE GOING TO RUIN THE GAME, RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE...etc.

You want safety or you don't.. If people want it, you can't bitch every time a possible solution is so much as discussed.

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It's safe enough as is, it's called risk/reward. People are still signing up to make millions of dollars for our amusement KNOWING THE RISKS, so it's safe enough.

Why aren't more people concerned for the safety of MMA fighters? Oh wait, some sports are inherently violent and people know that.

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The cost of modifying existing stadiums alone would probably kill that idea.

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When Teddy Roosevelt got involved in regulating the sport to make it safer there was talk of widening the field to open the game up but Harvard had just built their (then) massive concrete stadium and they successfully lobbied to nix that idea.

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In those days, football was a running and kicking game. But as the sport became increasingly violent, some colleges were dropping it in favor of rugby, so in 1906 U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt 1880 stepped in to save the game. He organized the Intercollegiate Football Conference — a collection of 28 colleges and universities and the forerunner of the NCAA — and demanded it adopt rules changes to make the sport safer. Some suggested widening the field, but the permanent nature of the stands at Harvard Stadium made it impractical for the school to endorse this plan.

Concerned that eliminating football at Harvard might mean the end of the sport on a national level, the committee instead approved the forward pass, though it did its best to minimize its effect on the sport. In 1906, the penalty for an incomplete was for the offensive team to lose possession (the rule was “softened” in 1907 to a loss of 15 yards). Other rules changes were also implemented, including giving the offense just three downs instead of five to gain a first down and shortening games from 70 to 60 minutes with a mandatory 10-minute rest between halves. In hindsight, however, it was the adoption of the forward pass that curtailed the sport’s violence and led to the surge in popularity that remains to this day.

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LINK

CFL has an extra player on the field to compensate for the extra space. Also the CFL recruits vastly different athletes than the NFL. Usually a lot smaller and quicker. Also less skilled as they aren't in the NFL

I'm a fan of the CFL, even if it is a less talented league. Just something fun to do in the middle of summer in Canada.