Comparison of American Football and Rugby League - Players

Players

Further information: American football positions and Rugby league positions

An American football team has 11 players on the field at a time. However, in most leagues, teams may substitute for any or all of their players, if time allows, during the break between plays. As a result, players have very specialized roles. Thus, teams are divided into three separate units: the offensive team, the defensive team and the special teams. While each team in the NFL has a 53-man roster, only 48 players can dress for a game. College and high school teams have unlimited rosters, while other professional leagues have historically had approximately 40 players.

In rugby league the same players have to both defend and attack. There are thirteen players and four replacements in a rugby league team, with only twelve interchanges of players allowed to be made throughout the game (ten in the Australian NRL). If the interchanges are used up and a player becomes injured and cannot continue, the team simply has to play short handed. All players must attack and defend and there is no equivalent of special teams.

Prior to the 1960s, and in arena football (an indoor variant of the American game) from 1988 to 2007, American football did use a one-platoon system in which most players were required to play all facets of the game, severely limiting substitution, much as rugby league (and most other sports) continue to do. Most levels of American football abolished the one-platoon system in the late 1940s and early 1950s, although college football re-implemented it for a short time in the 1950s and 1960s.

Broadly speaking, offensive and defensive linemen in American football correspond to forwards in rugby league and other players are somewhat similar to backs. Basically the job of the forwards in rugby league is to get the ball over the advantage line and give the backs space and a chance to be creative and move the ball around, which will hopefully result in points. However, rugby league players are far less specialised than American football players.

Many of the positions have similar names but in practice are very different. A fullback in American football is very different from a fullback in rugby league. However, some of the positions are fairly similar: for instance, the stand-off/five-eighth and halfback carry out a similar role to a quarterback in American football.

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    —William Shakespeare (1564–1616)