Soz to reignite this, but hey - it's fun cultural discussion after all (Flint hasn't turned up yet).

Rugby comes top in manly field games. We don't count blood sports like cage fighting and extreme wrestling and all. I'm not a fan of either Rugby (sorry Merc) because it was a posh boys game and I never learned the rules. It was taught at my secondary school (12-18) but my male friends and my bro hated it with a passion - although they were not unsporting types.

Australian Rules second. I know even less about it, hence its second place - but what I know is vicious. In fact I'd put it in third place just out of spite, because of the Antipodean men I've heard say, "Rugby? That's a gay sport! You wanna watch..." etc etc etc. But I'm not that shallow.

Football third. It can be the roughest, toughest game in the world. No, really - it is the beautiful game and you would get it if you watched our local team on Boxing Day. Always a local derby, often on hard/ frozen ground. Personal insults shouted. Both teams castigated and wildly applauded in turn. Passion that could run a small town if it was tapped, usually for a result that doesn't affect either team. And supporters, like me, my bro, my SIL, stamping our feet in the winter chill, sun already setting, for a 0-1 match. And players launching themsleves into grazes and sliding into bruises and being whooped at for wearing leggings under their shorts.

I adore it.

Merkin Football fourth. Too much stop & start for me. Four seconds of play then stop. No better than cricket.

I think here are some things you have to be born into to appreciate. Some people cross over of course. My bro just spent a fair few pounds to see an American Football game in London. And he loves (real) football - aka soccer. And after all many Americans love Monty Python. But I bet you'd be diffident about Benidorm for example

So I'm being diplomatic.
But yeah, what is manly about American Football? ;)

I'm going to invent a special keyboard that breaks your fingers when you type my name.

I watched a little American Football on TV last night.

It pretty much confirmed my existing opinion that the actual action bits are pretty good, but there are far too many breaks in play. In Rugby Union, once the player with the ball is tackled, play does not stop, but rather the tackling player must release and roll away, and the ball-carrier must immediately play the ball (generally by releasing it on the ground behind him - whichever team gets numbers there first gets to pick it up).
After all the stop-start of American Football, I was staggered to see that the coach can call time-outs! WTF? Isn't this game slow enough already?
And then my jaw really dropped when one team was penalised for "delaying the game". That made me laugh.

This allows us loudmouth Americans to opine on each play ad infinitum, drink beer, fart, and burp.