american football

[FOGHORN LEGHORN]

i currently play american football for the lincolnshire bombers in the british american football league. plenty of people at work have expressed an interest in playing and have asked why i don't try and set up a team at marham. i did enquire before going to the desert last year but came to a dead end. don't see why we can't set something up when there is plenty of interest, a league to affiliate ourselves with etc. we have ice hockey teams in the raf, why not american football? anyone else interested or think they can help set something up, my attempts have met little assistance due in part to the fact that i'm only wearing sac rank slides.
other camps could set up teams and we could have inter-station leagues and comps. if you're interested or think you could help then please reply. cheers.

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[metimmee]

i currently play american football for the lincolnshire bombers in the british american football league. plenty of people at work have expressed an interest in playing and have asked why i don't try and set up a team at marham. i did enquire before going to the desert last year but came to a dead end. don't see why we can't set something up when there is plenty of interest, a league to affiliate ourselves with etc. we have ice hockey teams in the raf, why not american football? anyone else interested or think they can help set something up, my attempts have met little assistance due in part to the fact that i'm only wearing sac rank slides.
other camps could set up teams and we could have inter-station leagues and comps. if you're interested or think you could help then please reply. cheers.

DT_Xtremez_30: DT_Xtremez_28: DT_Xtremez_30: DT_Xtremez_28:

This was tried at Kinloss around 1990. If I remember correctly, they had a fixture...and not long after I was posted so I am not aware of how many games they had. When i returned in 94 it had folded.

Your problem, I assume will be the cost of the kit? The fact that there is a local league should help. Good luck with your efforts.

 

[auchtermuchty]

There is another problem as well as cost of kit. I played for the Ipswich cardinals a few years ago when we went to East Kilbride in the national semis. Our problem wasnt kit or coaching, it was purely numbers of players. Factor in the guys you would require for skill positions and all it would take would be one squadron OOA and your screwed. Look at the Navy rugby, the team they field against the Army every year is good but thats the only time that team plays together because of ships being at sea. Same principle. Ice Hockey works as the number of people needed is half that of football and its easier to cover for the occasional missing player. (dont get up tight puck boys I said easier not easy!)

All that seems very negative, so for some good news........

With the Yanks at just down the road from Marham, it shouldnt be too hard to coerce someone into coaching (the guy that coached the Cardinals was a yank) indeed they may wish to integrate as even they couldnt keep a team together and there is 54,000 of them (including ex-pats, women and children admittedly) in the greater Mildenhall catchment area. Surely finding 40 or so ballers shouldnt be hard!

Also on the kit front , as I'm off to Cosford soon, I have a set of linesman shoulder pads and a helmet to donate. PM me if you want to collect them.

 

[FOGHORN LEGHORN]

cheers lads for your responses. i agree that numbers would be the main stumbling point. the station football and rugby teams struggle for numbers as it is.
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[3Chordwonder]

I recall a couple of us attempting to get the sport offcially recognised back in the early 90's.
There were 4 of us from Locking who played for Taunton Wyverns.

We were politely told to feck off by the powers that be.

It always grated on me that the dungeons and dragons players at the wargames club got recognised, but not us.

I've long since retired but I am about to become an official for the BAFRA, I guess that won't get recognised either....

 

[CanuckPilot]

Thank god I've got Canadian Football to watch instead!

What the hell is this "Fair Catch" nonsense! And who needs 4 downs to run 100 yards? We Canucks have a 110yard field, that has deeper end zones and a wider field as well, and yet we seem to manage just fine with only 3 downs.

I mean, honestly... how could you NOT make it 10 yards with 4 attempts? That's all you have to do... just 10...

lol

 

[auchtermuchty]

Thank god I've got Canadian Football to watch instead!

What the hell is this "Fair Catch" nonsense! And who needs 4 downs to run 100 yards? We Canucks have a 110yard field, that has deeper end zones and a wider field as well, and yet we seem to manage just fine with only 3 downs.

I mean, honestly... how could you NOT make it 10 yards with 4 attempts? That's all you have to do... just 10...

lol

Now now, play nice.

To be fair though I agree, the northern variant is a much more dynamic game.

 

[3Chordwonder]

I've watched some of Moose-trapper football on NASN - bizarre!

12 guys on the field, 2 or 3 people in motion before the snap...those huge endzones....and about 5 teams in the whole league !

I always loved the South Park take on the CFL - "It's the Roughriders vs the Roughriders.."

Mind you, they did give us Doug Flutie and Warren Moon.

 

[auchtermuchty]

....and about 5 teams in the whole league !

Thats because there are only a handful of major cities and they all have one each (although a couple of them are named after states since they are the only one in the state!!)

 

[3Chordwonder]

Aye !

Of the 4 variants of the game, I have to say that the NFL probably is the best to watch.

College Football - great, but can be too long with the clock stopping on 1st down.

CFL - Too much emphasis on passing, but worth a look

Arena - Good for a fix during the off-season but virtually no defence.

 

[Tin basher]

Off Topic Does anybody give the Giants a chance in the superbowl or is the Patriot machine just unstoppable this yearOff Topic

 

[auchtermuchty]

Off Topic Does anybody give the Giants a chance in the superbowl or is the Patriot machine just unstoppable this yearOff Topic

Of course they have a chance, thats why we play the games. I mean the patriot bus could crash on the way to the stadium killing all on board. Of course that wouldnt be the whole team but it'd even the skillsets somewhat.

 

[CanuckPilot]

Thats because there are only a handful of major cities and they all have one each (although a couple of them are named after states since they are the only one in the state!!)

Just to clarify... Canada has Provinces, not states.

As for the South Park thing, lol. There used to be two leagues years ago. One had a team called the Saskatchewan Roughriders, and the other had a team called the Ottawa Rough Riders. When the leagues merged, they let them keep their names. But the Ottawa team folded a while back anyway. They came back briefly as the Ottawa Renegades, but that only lasted a few seasons. So unfortunatly, there aren't any more Roughriders vs Rough Riders games. lol.

 

[3Chordwonder]

Thanks for the clarification mate !

I once sat in Yankee Stadium at a Yank v Blue Jays game and heard some of the funniest insults hurled at a small group of Maple-leaf-Flag waving Cannucks.
Went from "Fur-Trappers !" to "Moose=F***ers" and my personal favourite..."Pacifists!"

Pains me to root for anyone on Sunday (Jets Fan!) but I guess I slightly go with the Pats over the blue scum who kick us out of our stadium once every 2 weeks.

I predict Pats 34 NY 20

 

[3Chordwonder]

Excellent Superbowl !

Great defence for 15 minutes, one of the best finishes ever AND the Pats fall at the last hurdle.

 

[I Look Like Kevin Costner]

42

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I watched the SuperBowl properly last night for the first time (joys of OOA shift patterns). I did enjoyed the first quarter (it seem to go fairly quickly cos the Gaints first drive just went on and on) and the final Quarter were it was exciting to the end. I thought the best move was the pass by the Giants QB that made the winning score possible. He was virtually hammered and still got a 25 yard pass out!

 

[Soupdragon]

Great game last night , wrong result mind you, but great game anyway....

Am I the only one to get p1shed off withthe winner sof the Superbowl calling themselves the 'World Champions'?

Take on the rest of the world and then you can claim that until then they just USA Champions!!

 

[Scaley brat]

Great game last night , wrong result mind you, but great game anyway....

Am I the only one to get p1shed off withthe winner sof the Superbowl calling themselves the 'World Champions'?

Take on the rest of the world and then you can claim that until then they just USA Champions!!

Don't believe the Euro hype mate, even the bottom of the league team could wipe the floor with any European team. The London Monarchs came the closest and they had "borrowed" NFL players on their roster.

They call themselves world champions because, like Baseball, if a player is any good he gets poached into the American leagues. A good proportion of the world is represented in Baseball and American football. Hate the Spams if you must, but not because they are actually the best at something.





Even if you think it's because no-one else wants to play it.




Baseball was invented in Britain long before the USA was invented in the America's . DT_Xtremez_28:
American football is Rugby league with unlimited substitutions and Oxygen breaks. DT_Xtremez_31:

 

[CanuckPilot]

American football is Rugby league with unlimited substitutions and Oxygen breaks. DT_Xtremez_31:

To be honest, this is a lot of the reason why the CFL is one hell of a lot better than NFL style Football.

Canadian football traces it's roots back to the 1860s, farther than the NFL, and was responsible for introducing the game to the US in the 1870s.

Granted, today the games are have only slight variations in play, most notably a larger CFL field, and only 3 downs rather than the American 4. But there are other differences throughout that I believe make for a better game.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_football
http://www.cfl.ca/index.php?module=page&id=21

Trouble is, no matter how good the CFL game is, it is incredibly difficult to compete with the marketing and advertising machine that is the NFL. As a result of this, the NFL is able to pay players significantly more, making their brand of football more attractive to top end players.

That's the real reason for the dominance of the Americans in Gridiron style football. If European teams could afford to pay players better than they would be in the USA, then I'm sure that they could recruit top end players just as well as the states. The only trouble is that the game has become so entrenched, that it's probably their most popular High School and College sport, so they've got a lot of kids to draw from.

The CFL actually has rules requiring a certain number of players on the field to be Canadian, in an attempt to avoid making a league drafted entirely from American players. Of the 39 players allowed on a CFL teams roster, only 17 are allowed to be "imports".

http://www.cfl.ca/index.php?module=page&id=5

In any case, even though I don't follow the NFL at all, (I never watch the games, check the scores, or generally give a rats arse) I still tuned in for the last 3 minutes of the Superbowl, just so I could say I saw the ending. lol. That play where the NY QB broke the sack and made that throw, and then the receiver pulled the ball down out of no-where... that was a damn good play. I have no idea how the hell he pulled that off.

All in all, Superbowl XLII is a far cry from Grey Cup 95. We've been doing this for a long time!

 

[auchtermuchty]

ok who woke up the Canadian?

Nobody really cares who's been doing it longer unless it is the person who lays claim to the lineage. Ask the football/rugby players from anywhere other than England.

Its all about style, my preference is for the CFL followed by the NCAA then the NFL (arena doesnt count). I like the passing game induced by the 3 down system. For the 4 down variants I prefer to watch the kids since if a mistake is made it may not cost you the game, where in the pro's it normally does. I prefer games to be won by skill not mistakes. I'm not saying you dont see skills in the pro's, far from it, when they make a special play its breathtaking. Quite often though that isnt what wins the game (same applies in the CFL but I forgive them because its a more open style)

Just my opinion of course and for what its worth I think it was great that the Roughriders won last year, shook things up a bit!