Hockey Versus Football

If there was fight between 10 NFL players and 10 NHL players, who would win?

If the fight is on ice, the hockey players will clean up with no problem. If it's on Astroturf, the football players have a definite advantage.

So they'll fight in the snow.

The football players will do well because they're big. If they can hit hard and fast, it could be over before it really starts.

But football players are used to a competition where they run around like crazy for about a minute and then they stop to take a break. Hockey player skate quickly and continuously for a long time. If the fight goes on for a while, that type of conditioning could be a serious disadvantage to the football players.

Football players need more breaks. Hockey players are in it for the long haul.

On the other hand the football players are big.

When it comes to fighting in their sport, though, hockey players have more experience. Sure, they're not supposed to fight (wink wink) but they do quite often with few consequences. They run into each other, throw each other against the wall and toss punches at one another through out the whole game. That's what fans go to see. NFL players who fight in a game, however, face actual consequences. Hockey players have more experience brawling. They also have more experience taking a punch. And they do this with less protective equipment.

On the other hand, football players are big. Really big.

It seems like hockey players tend to be crazy. It looks like an utterly exhausting sport and getting hit with a piece of frozen rubber must be painful. Yet they keep doing it. One guy's job it to stand in front of the net and get in the way of the frozen piece of rubber being hurled at him through the chilled air. And, until the rules changed to mandate it, most players played the sport without a helmet or any sort of head protection. And in a fight, I generally give the advantage to the crazy one. Sane people ultimately are concerned about protecting themselves and fighting clean. The worst person to fight against is the one who would think nothing of eating his opponents eyes. How do you defend against that?

But have you noticed how big football players are? Seriously, they get really big.

The consensus at dinner, among the sports enthusiasts I spoke with was that the football players would probably win. After all, they're kind of big. I'm not convinced. But there is one thing we agreed on. It would be a hell of a fight.