Why is soccer so unpopular in the US?

[rocketpig]

rjs_252 said:

rocketpig said:

 

Show me a rugby player that is as large, as fast, and as tall as Shawne Merriman.

Again, I'll repeat: 6'4", 272 lbs, 4.61 40.

Show me a rugby player that can even touch that and I will completely retract anything I said.

...

They don't exist. I guarantee you that if the NFL put a cross section of linebackers, defensive backs, and safeties on a rugby field and spent a year teaching them how to play rugby, they would not only beat every team in the world, they would annihilate them in the fashion of the Dream Team.

I can think of one off the top of my head (granted kidney replacement has changed him now and his trying to make a comeback):

Jonah Lomu: 6'5", 260 lbs, 100m - 10.89s (dividing by 10 and multiplying by 4 for the 40m time gives us: 4.36s) Thats assuming that someone runs at a constant speed (not blatantly true) but a good indicator. Either way he was certainly in the ball park of Merriman, wouldn't you think?

Granted, plays like Lomu come along rarely in rugby, there are a helluva lot of players who are slightly smaller smaller (weight wise, around 16 stone and still in the range of "feck I wouldn't want him running into me at full pelt) but still run the 100m in under 11s - something I'd like to see proof Merriman could do (we don't use 40m as a speed measuring distance in rugby really, all results are usually of the 100m variety).

So you listed one guy who had a problem and will never be as fast again.

Well, that's the trick. I could list you 4-5 linebackers in the NFL just as big and fast as Merriman and 10-15 guys as safeties and DBs who are just a little smaller (maybe 6'2", 230) who run even faster than Merriman.

Anyone who looks at the NFL and actually sees them play in real life would realize just how badly a cross-section of NFL players would kick the living shit out of any rugby team and make them re-think how much they want to play the sport. These guys are bigger, stronger, and faster than anything ever seen on a rugby field.