Although I don't understand American football, there are similarities, but there's no body armor, crash helmets, or as many coffee breaks in rugby.Some say it's a game for gentlemen played by hooligans.There are rules, of course, but most players seem to think they're merely guidlines and the only rule that must be observed is "Don't get caught".
I played it at school and being of Welsh descent I presumed there might be some sort of genetic ability (there wasn't)and rapidly came to the conclusion that there was more to life than standing around in shorts and t-shirt on a rain soaked, freezing February afternoon, in the teeth of a howling gale; waiting for someone to kick a waterlogged, inflated ovoid pig's bladder at me. So now I content myself with crying my eyes out when the sing "Bread of Heaven" at the Millenium Stadium, and watch as the team in red jerseys get massacred by Italians (or French, or Scots, or Irish, or the bloody English).
Apart from that it's a marvellous game, and I'm bloody glad I'm too old to play it.