Hothgar, did Oliver Cromwell play rugby? ;}

You do raise an interesting point however. Off the top of my head, I believe that every country where soccer is a major sport, has had an military overthrow, while no American style football country has so suffered. This is not true of baseball (Japan), basketball or ping pong (China)or even bowling (that bastard Cromwell again). There may be other sports connections, but I leave those to others...