NFL knows US professional rugby union could be a very good deal indeed (MLS mentions/comparisons)

Sure. But when you compare that to "used to play IM soccer" plus "have family from a soccer nation," the number has to be really low. Hard to see rugby league starting out at 45,000 fans per match and fat TV contract. This "start big" talk seems like either lunacy or puffery.

 

I'm not so sure about that Union and League seem to coexist just fine in the southern hemisphere. The more sports the better IMO.

 

I wonder if this is part of a long term plan by the NFL to introduce a "safer" style of play that will slowly be incorporated into American football.

I've always thought football should be playable without the equipment that was originally intended to protect but has evolved into attack weaponry.

If people see how a different game with tackling can be played incremental steps in our game might seem more acceptable/reasonable?

 

This is actually just one of a couple groups trying to bring pro rugby union to the states. Here is an interview from a different group that mentions being in contact with the MLS and trying to follow a similar model of slow and steady.

http://www.thisisamericanrugby.com/2013/01/pro-rugby-q-with-aprcs-jason-moore.html

 

Correct.
Like how American and Canadian gridiron does in the Americas/Northern Hemisphere. Same sport but the details do make a significant impact. Just ask Warren Moon and the like.

The first incremental step is obvious to a purist that remembers his elders speak of "how the sport used to be". That is to return to all the gridiron players playing both sides of the ball like how it was for the first 50 years of gridiron after Walter Camp really drove the break from rugby.
As a younger man I was lucky enough to be with coaches that left me on the field and I was able to play both offense and defense and all special teams. I literally only left the field at the half and the final whistle. That was hella fun!
Demanding a return to what is termed "ironman" gridiron will eliminate the tree trunk player that is very specialized but has minimal endurance and certainly as it is now would literally die if let's say an O-Lineman in the NFL had to play both ways. The mold of linebackers would be about as big and yet agile as the ironman version would allow. The end result is pretty much the same hitting but as in rugby, playing non-stop, the player must trade technique in the tackle over raw power to blow someone up. Simply put, gridiron defensive players don't have to "save themselves" for the other side of the ball and if they did it would imho deliver what the NFL currently is facing. That is how to not alter the sport but get the players to alter it on their own for their OWN sakes.

 

MULTIREP

 

The details didn't make a shit to Warren Moon. He owned the hell out of both leagues.

 

You don't say. Here's your armband Captain Obvious.
I was going with more of how a man like Moon could break down where the wider field, extra man, deeper endzones and the like in Canuck gridiron add/takes away from what we know and enjoy in our version of gridiron.
More so as a QB as they really must know the game.

 

Exactly. League can't even expand beyond a narrow band of Northern cities in England, where the game was invented. It's really not that popular. The Rugby Union World Cup is the 3rd biggest international sporting event after the Olympics and FIFA World Cup and the game didn't even go professional until the early 1990s. Most people don't even know when the Rugby League World Cup is happening.

 

3rd?

Winter Olympics?
Could F1 races be considered international events?
Cricket is also huge, India alone gives it a lot of fans/viewers.

 

Just out of curiosity... Does anyone know what the ratings on the NFL Network are outside of Thursday night Football?

 

Draft: http://www.usatoday.com/story/sport...8/nfl-draft-espn-nfl-network-ratings/2119673/ ..... just says .6% of households.

http://www.sportsmediawatch.com/201...ring-the-super-bowl-also-more-nfl-nhl-on-nbc/ .... 43K for their show during the Super Bowl.

There's stuff out there, you just gotta dig a bit.

 

I did and actually did see the ratings you found, but was more curious about their "standard" programming. I was thinking the ratings were pretty low in general, so airing a pro rugby league would probably be excellent filler for the channel. Although, I was also seeing that NFL network is in "only" 70m homes, but I think that is 2006 numbers, so who knows.

 

The CFL vs. NFL differences made some difference to Dieter Brock (CFL star to NFL bust) and Vince Ferragamo (NFL star to CFL bust).

 

2012 according to this article: http://www.adweek.com/news/television/nfl-network-scares-record-ratings-146110

so 70-75m is probably pretty accurate.

 

What stadiums would a rugby league want to use? MLS Stadiums! If MLS teams profit in someway it would be great. They should play from December to March in a limited schedule to begin.

 

December through March? On the East Coast as stated? In outdoor MLS stadiums? So in Foxboro, New York, Philly, DC, Orlando*, and Ft. Lauderdale*? The Florida location maybe, but the rest of those December through March are going to be challenging to draw a crowd.

*MLSish.

 

this reads like 35% of posts at Planet Rugby

 

I think the bigger challenge to drawing a crowd will be the fact that they are playing rugby in the US.