FOOTBALL VS. RUGBY

                                             

    Football is one of the most popular sports in the United States today.  While rugby is one of the most popular sports in England today. 

    Football and rugby in a way, are very similar, and in a way, very different.  If you play football, rugby will come fairly easy to you. 

    Football has been around for almost as long as rugby has.  Rugby was invented by a man named Web Ellis, in 1823.  Web Ellis got the idea of inventing the sport rugby while playing a game of football (now known as soccer in America).  He had the ball kicked to him.  He picked it up.  But instead of kicking it back or running with the football (soccer in America), he ran towards the goal line and yelled, ''TRY!''  That is said how rugby was invented.  The rugby ball was originally made from a pig's bladder and its unique, oval shape is still to represent it.  Rugby became a proffesional sport in 1995 and will be featured in the 2016 Olympics. 

    Football was invented not long after rugby was invented.  The game football was invented in 1876.  A man named Walter Camp came up with the idea of football after seeing the game rugby that Web Ellis came up with.  Walter Camp came up with the idea of football after seeing rugby and soccer and sort of combining the two. 

    Football has widely become one of the most popular sports in the United States today.  The game of football became a professional sport in 1942.  It now has the name NFL, or The National Football League. 

    Football has really changed since it was invented over 130 years ago.  Now football has helmets with extra padding to protect the players from concusions.  Way back when, the game of football was played with leather helmets.  The ball that the players used to play with was made of pig skin hide.  Now the football is made from rubber and the helmets are made of plastic. 

    The sport of football has been around for almost 70 years, now.  But the game of professional football may come to an end.  The NFL may be forced to do a lockout of the game of football. 

    There are some similarities and also differences between football and rugby.  One is that in rugby, you can only pass the ball backwards, not forwards.  Where in football, you can pass the ball forward and backwards. 

    Another difference is where in rugby, the game is about 80 minutes long.  While in football, the game is usually over 3 hours long.  So between a football game and a rugby game the time difference is around 100 minutes.  

   There are also some similarities of football and rugby.  In rugby and football, you can lateral the ball backwards to each other.  Also in both sports, you can tackle eachother for the ball. 

    Rugby and football also have similar and different terms.  In rugby, when a player does an illegal move, he is temporarily suspended from the game.  In football, if a player does an illegal move, a penalty marker flies and there is a loss of yards.  The field in rugby is called a ''pitch'';  and in football it's called a ''field''.  Rugby and football have some similarities in terms.  The terms tackling and fumbling are both used in rugby and football. 

    If you know how to play football and you want to learn to play rugby, it will come fairly easy. 

                                                                                                            

      The Vikings’ Stadium

   The Vikings shouldn’t build a new stadium.  The Vikings have had talks about building a new stadium for the past few years.  They have also complained about that the Metrodome is getting too old and Ziggy Wilf wants a new stadium.  Well, we just don’t need a new stadium.  We can keep playing in the Metrodome.

    The Vikings’ new stadium, if they build one, would cost an estimated $700 to $900 million dollars.  The Vikings are not worth the money.  It is not worth over a half a billion dollars for a new stadium, just to watch a football game.  And of all the teams to watch, they want to build it for the Vikings. 

    The Vikings are not the team they used to be in the past.  They have become a below five hundred team.  They also have lost their desire to play the game hard and have lost their ability to win football games.  If they had to build a new stadium, the Vikings would not play hard in it.

    By the way, where would the money for the stadium come from?  Who would have to pay for it?  The taxpayers of Minnesota would have to pay for it most likely.  Think of the outcome of this decision.  The people of Minnesota would have to pay their hard earned money on a new stadium.  Most Minnesotans would be very angry with this law.  Minnesotans would think it’s ridiculous to add another tax to their list.  The people of Minnesota are taxed enough already.  We don’t need another tax on stadiums. 

    We already have enough taxes on stadiums already.  We have to pay taxes on the Twins’ stadium, the Wilds’ stadium, the Timberwolves’ stadium, and the Gopher’s football and basketball stadiums.  Minnesota taxpayers have to pay about $545 million on the Twins’ stadium, Target Field.  Minnesota taxpayers have to pay about $120 million on the Timberwolves’ stadium, the Target Center.  Minnesota taxpayers have to pay about $450 to $650 million left to pay on the Wilds’ stadium, the Xcel Energy Center.  As for the Gophers’ football and basketball stadiums, Minnesota taxpayers have to pay about $500 million on the Gopher’s football stadium and about $280 million on the Gophers’ basketball stadium. 

    The total would add up to over $189.5 billion!  That’s how much Minnesotans have to pay for stadiums, just to watch sports games!   We don’t have to spend another $700-$900 million for another stadium.  Our pocketbooks will really be hurting.

    The Vikings should just repair the Metrodome.  They should (well they are going to anyway) fix the roof of the dome.  The roof collapsed last year due to snowfall so they should replace it with a new, sturdy roof.  And not an air-supported dome either.  The Vikings could also rebuild the structure of the stadium and fix the turf.  The players have complained a lot about the turf, how it is one of the worst artificial turfs in the NFL.  So the Vikings can fix that too.  It would be a whole lot cheaper to just do repairs instead of building a brand new stadium.

    It doesn’t add up to build a new stadium.  Minnesotans would have to pay taxes on it for years.  And then when it’s done, we may not even like how the stadium looks.  So to build a new stadium for the Vikings just shouldn’t happen now.  Because we can’t afford it!