American football is one of the many American sports that have gone global. It has a dedicated following in many countries, and local leagues, too – albeit its following is nowhere near that in the USA. The reason? For one, in many countries soccer is the most followed sport, and it leaves little room for other sports. Then, there’s the fact that American football has some distant cousins played in many parts of the world that steal the show.
While they won’t be listed among the most bizarre sports around the world anytime soon, these sports can raise the eyebrows of many American football fans.
Canadian Football
Canadian football is just like American football – if you are not a fan of either, that is. For a good while, Canadian football was a lot like rugby – the Burnside rules have, in turn, transformed it into a gridiron-style game that it has remained ever since.
The differences between the two sports are many – and some of them are significant. Canadian football fields are larger, the teams have 12 players instead of 11, the ball is slightly larger, there are just three downs instead of four, and the list could go on and on.
Rugby
Rugby is the sport American football is compared to most often. The two have a common ancestor – soccer, by the way, has emerged from the same source. The first major difference between the two is the use of protective equipment: where American football players step into the field in what seems like full body armor, rugby players only use soft padding (if any) under their shirts and shorts, and soft headgear at best. Using a hard helmet is, by the way, illegal in rugby football.
Australian Rules Football
Aussie Rules Football – often referred to simply as “footy” – has been “invented” by Tom Wills, a former pupil at the Rugby School in England. He was a cricket player, and it shows: footy is often played on a modified cricket ground.
Aussie rules football is the most followed sport in Australia – the AFL Grand Final (basically, the footy Super Bowl) is the most attended club championship event in the world.
Gaelic Football
Gaelic football is the Irish version of rugby, a very popular local variety of the sport. It is said to be more exciting and faster-paced than American football. What makes it the most interesting is that the players are all “amateurs” – as in they are not paid a cent to play. Not even at the top levels of the sport.
Gaelic football and Aussie rules football are very similar – the two have even been merged into something called “International Rules Football” that allows playing representative matches between the teams of the two countries.
There is no telling when the NFL season will resume. There’s no telling when either of the above will. Given, in turn, that they are in different countries, there is a chance that some of them will return sooner than the others, giving sports fans something at least vaguely similar to their favorite sport to follow.
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