27th March 2004, 4:35 PM
When Darunia admits he hates organized sports, his opinion doesn't count.
I love both sports, but I grew up on football and only recently adopted hockey. So obviously I'm biased, but who isn't one way or the other. But as you said, this isn't a debate about which sport is better, so...
There have been football players who have been suspended for extended lengths of time, even an entire season, although this usually has to do with drug violations. A couple years ago there was a Cleveland Brown who attacked a ref and was suspended for a year. The new trend is fining and suspending safeties for removing the heads of unsuspecting receivers, and when a star player misses a game or two he quickly becomes unpopular with the fans and coaching staff.
This is because in the NFL it is VERY hard to get into the playoffs and one game can be the difference between winning your division and a first round bye and missing the playoffs altogether. So every game a player misses is excuciatingly important. I'm not downplaying the importance of a single game in hockey, because even though there are so many games in a season all the teams are pretty close at the end. The key difference is that just about everybody, his brother, sister, and cousin, and friends make the playoffs in the NHL or NBA, and once you are in, placement is not a huge deal, since there are no first round byes.
Probably the biggest difference is that cheap shots, and fighting are part of the culture of hockey. :) There are some fights during the game in football, but usually just scuffles, and the refs and teammates don't stand around watching until somebody is on the ground and the fight over. Plus it might be painful to punch somebody in the face mask. :)
I love both sports, but I grew up on football and only recently adopted hockey. So obviously I'm biased, but who isn't one way or the other. But as you said, this isn't a debate about which sport is better, so...
There have been football players who have been suspended for extended lengths of time, even an entire season, although this usually has to do with drug violations. A couple years ago there was a Cleveland Brown who attacked a ref and was suspended for a year. The new trend is fining and suspending safeties for removing the heads of unsuspecting receivers, and when a star player misses a game or two he quickly becomes unpopular with the fans and coaching staff.
This is because in the NFL it is VERY hard to get into the playoffs and one game can be the difference between winning your division and a first round bye and missing the playoffs altogether. So every game a player misses is excuciatingly important. I'm not downplaying the importance of a single game in hockey, because even though there are so many games in a season all the teams are pretty close at the end. The key difference is that just about everybody, his brother, sister, and cousin, and friends make the playoffs in the NHL or NBA, and once you are in, placement is not a huge deal, since there are no first round byes.
Probably the biggest difference is that cheap shots, and fighting are part of the culture of hockey. :) There are some fights during the game in football, but usually just scuffles, and the refs and teammates don't stand around watching until somebody is on the ground and the fight over. Plus it might be painful to punch somebody in the face mask. :)