borg

Let's call it:
5 minutes offense
5 minutes defense
1 minute special teams

16 game season, typical offense is engaged:
80 minutes over 4 months
20 minutes over 1 month
5 minutes over 1 week

Now let's look at hockey...the Bruins are a good example:
Regular season games: 82
playoff games: 25
total games: 107
total actual game time: 6,420 minutes

Now let's look at extreme example: Zdeno Chara
Chara averaged 26 minutes/game vs. Vancouver=5+ games for typical NFL starter.
In fact Chara completed a typical NFL season in 3 games.

So let's review: Chara plays 30 times more minutes than typical NFL player in equally physical sport (let the debate begin) and somehow he can play 2-4 games per week over 9 months.....yet the NFLPA believes that increasing the schedule by two games, totalling an extra 10 minutes of field battle is too much for their members.

3-2-1....let the attacks begin .....

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Beecke

I don´t think the two sports are the same physically at all.

And anyway, over the last few years I have read so many utterly depressing and horrific stories of former NFL players, who are living the life of 80 year olds (health wise) in their 40s, that I will never hold it against them if they don´t want to play another two regular season games. We are talking about people here who seriously risk to have any kind of acceptable life after the NFL. (Nevermind that most of the bad stuff happens during practice though)

I have not read as many stories about hockey players, maybe there is not that big a focus on them, but probably they still live a good life getting older for the majority of times.

In any case, I don´t need to compare the NFL with any other league, the situation of quite a few of those players after retirement is bad enough to not underestimate their claims.

Deus Irae

In before thread gets sent to practice squad

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Tunescribe

You're comparing apples and oranges, and you're dead wrong about the sports being "equally physical." Much of this depends on position, of course, as both sports often rotate players depending upon time on the ice/field and situation. In hockey, exertion is more "continuous" but most contact is incidental and seldom head-on. In football, most players engage in contact on every play -- approximately 62 collisions PER GAME for linemen. Deliberately intentional contact in hockey (announcers even keep stats on "hits" vs. routine glancing checks on the boards) are a fraction of those seen in football. Hockey is more aerobic, football is more anaerobic. Both are very physical but in different ways.

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Gainzo

borg makes a good point about actual "action" in football. Why does a 60 minute NFL game take 3+ hours to play? Commercials, timeouts, TV timeouts, running plays, time spent in the huddle, running down the clock, etc.

Don't get me wrong as I love the NFL; but there is a reason the game isn't very popular in just about every other Country.

JoeSixPat

It's pointless to compare the violent chess of the NFL to the checkers on ice of the NHL. Both are good sports.

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borg

Incidental? I guess skating at 25 MPH and getting slammed into boards that don't give is nothing like a lineman traveling five feet toward a squishy NT. And think about what an NHL defenseman goes through night in and night out. Hand to hand combat ....or should I say stick to throat/stick to back in front of their net ....followed by sprints up ice. 100mph slapshots at their ankles...scrums/fights nightly. The only difference is hockey players don't lead with their heads, yet concussions seem equally prevalent.
My point for this discussion was to point out how one set of athletes can recover and compete....and don't forget practice daily when not competing....every other night while the NFL whines about adding 10 minutes of actual excertion.

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chicowalker

eh, people define "action" differently. I like soccer, but I don't buy the notion that it is action filled just because the ball is constantly moving. And it's not just about scoring, as evidenced (imo) by the "action" and scoring of the NBA.

chicowalker

He did say most contact is incidental, not that there are no ferocious hits.

I do think the general point of the type of contact is spot on. The recovery is simply different. Especially when guys in the NFL regularly weigh 30% to nearly 100% (granted, at the far end) more than NHL players, you've just got a different kind of contact and a different kind of recovery (imo).

patriot lifer

Not that I completely disagree with this argument, but...when we make the age-old comparison to Soccer (that's football to you Brits out there), soccer has lots of time during its "continuous play" where essentially nothing happens. Like when the ball is passed back and forth between the same 3 guys in the middle of the field and the game ends at 0-0. Many will call it suspense, but we have plenty of that in American football too. But this is all OT.

Edit: Plus, I don't think patience is a quality exceptional to us (as compared to other countries). In fact, if anything, we should hate football, lol.

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