American Gridiron Tackle Football is under attack, and I won’t stand for it. Tuesday’s letter to the editor claimed that the BYU Rugby club team deserves as much attention and funding as the BYU Football team. They cited the 2009 National Championship team as proof that they deserve a place at the table next to Bronco and company. This is more than just a slap in the face to the BYU Football team, but a roundhouse kick to the American people, a wedgie to the Declaration of Independence, and a purple nurple to the Constitution!
Men fought and died to keep us out of the British Empire, and the popularity of rugby in this country is disrespectful to those men. International rugby powerhouses include Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Wales and even England. What do those countries have in common? They are all apart of the Commonwealth. Why isn’t rugby popular in America? Why doesn’t ESPN ever cover intercollegiate rugby? Why doesn’t the BYU Athletic department add rugby to our line of already successful sports?
There is neither interest nor money in rugby in America because we won that war. American football may have roots in rugby; but with the invention of the forward pass, American football set itself apart as the greatest sport in the history of mankind. Putting rugby and American football on the same level is wrong, and is dishonoring 223 years of independence this great country has enjoyed. So enjoy rugby as a novelty, but do not mess with American Gridiron Tackle Football.
Lewis Young
Provo, UT
Posts
7 comments:
Consider: The U.S. is the reigning Olympic Champion.
ESPN does in fact show college Rugby games.
BYU Rugby had more games shown on ESPN last year than the football team.
BYU Rugby is in fact a BYU sport. Men's Rugby is not NCAA but controlled by USA Rugby.
I love football but once you go Rugby football just isn't the same. Just ask all the BYU football players who also have been on the BYU Rugby team :)
ESPNU isn't ESPN, it is ESPNU.
I lived in New Zealand and have been to professional Rugby matches, and I respect it for what it is: A bad ass, hard-nosed, ugly, rucking, hard-hitting mansport.
But in America, rugby doesn't have the beauty of a flea-flicker, the intensity of college rules overtime, cheerleaders, or even marching band.
I wish the BYU Rugby team great luck, congrats on the nat'l championship, but don't expect football to go anywhere.
My point was that to think rugby would ever eclipse football in popularity is absolutely ridiculous. Laughable, even.
Agreed, I don't expect football to go anywhere. However, Rugby continues to grow in almost every area across the country at the high school level primarily because it is funner to play for everyone.
As for your last comment. Talk to those old geezers who never thought that football and basketball would ever be on par with baseball. Your comment shows a lack of perspective and a case of blinders.
As far as the original article you responded to, the writer merely wanted a little more light shone on BYU's winningest and most dominant sports program. Would this require a football team to split loyalties? They aren't even played during the same season. many football players also play rugby. Wouldn't that be incentive for the BYU fan to come out to see some hits with no pads?
I rest my case.
Just a few things ...
1. Actually, a few of the "american sports" are really canadian. James Naismith, a canadian (albeit working in massachussets) invented basketball(see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_basketball). Football was introduced to america through McGill playing a game of football against Harvard (harvard playing the soccer rules were so impressed by the way McGIll picked the ball and ran with the rugby rules that they started using these rules from then on and introduced them to other teams in america) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_football#History and http://www.mcgill.ca/news/2005/summer/epilogue/). And finally Hockey is the ultimate canadian sports introduced in america.
2. Canada is part of the commonwealth. If you really want to set yourself apart from it, you better stop playing all these canadian games. I believe that leaves you with Baseball!
3. The development of football happened after the war of independence, therefore, you didn't really fight for that in particular.
4. Finally, although I love football, I totally disagree with "American football set itself apart as the greatest sport in the history of mankind". C'mon man ... nothing comes even close to Hockey!
Just a little canadian perspective on things.
Cheers
JM
Yeah, but you're a French Canadian... that's the worst kind of Canadian there is!
JK
I appreciate your Canadian outlook. Maybe someday Canada will finally ratify the constitution and officially become a state!
Haha ... did you like my use of the word albeit ... I'm not even sure if I used it correctly!
Cheers
Jean-Michael...
I think you used it correctly, and I did enjoy it.
Glad to see you're still using one of your two mission languages.
go penguins.
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