 | |
| Sport | Rugby union |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2014 |
| No. of teams | TBD |
| Country | United States |
| Continent | North America |
| Official website | thenrfl.com |
National Rugby Football League (NRFL) is a professional rugby union league headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Founded in 2014, the NRFL aims to establish itself as the premier rugby competition in North America, bringing the largest tackle sport worldwide to the most lucrative sport & entertainment market — North America. [1]
The NRFL boasts an impressive list of executives and strategic partners from major sports organizations such as the NFL, NASCAR, MLB, NBA, Nike, and Fox, including: Michael Clements (CEO), Steve Ryan (Managing Director), Rick White (NRFL Properties), Jeff Diamond (Team Operations), Mick Byrne (Director of Rugby), Craig Robbins (Investor Relations), Geoff Belinfante, (Media), Ashley Horobin (Manager, High-Performance), Dr. Ralph Bovard (Chief Medical), Lynda Wilson (General Counsel) and Karl Neset (Financial Officer).
The league also has an Advisory Board composed of notable members of the sports world, including: Bo Jackson, Leigh Steinberg, Metta World Peace, Steve LaCroix, Patrick Crakes, and Rob Thompson.
More than 130 players, including nearly 50 with NFL experience, participated in the NRFL's first combine held in Minneapolis in April 2014. [2] [3] [4] The second combine took place January 12–15 in Los Angeles, California at the LA Memorial Coliseum. [5]
The NRFL plans to re-launch under a league-owned-and-operated model. The NRFL will function exclusively in the U.S., aiming to launch 8 founding teams prior to the Rugby World Cup being held in the U.S. in 2031.
The NRFL will also have a media and entertainment platform dedicated to NRFL content. The content side of the league, which has been dubbed “NRFL Studios”, aims to create both an NRFL-centric docuseries, as well as scripted rugby films.
As the population of American rugby players continues to grow, the NRFL aims to be a league for both lifelong rugby players, as well as athletes from other professional sports leagues. The league’s player recruitment methods are focused on targeting current and former NFL or collegiate football players.
In April 2020, CEO Michael Clements partnered with NFL Alumni, the retired players’ advocacy group for the world’s richest sports league. The partnership aims to collaborate on a high-performance center for tackle-sport athletes that will serve as a potential feeding ground for both leagues. [6]
A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby league, and rugby union.
Rugby football is the collective name for the team sports of rugby union and rugby league.
Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes rugby, football, footy or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 m (74 yd) wide and 112–122 m (122–133 yd) long with H shaped posts at both ends. It is one of the two codes of rugby football, the other being rugby union. It originated in 1895 in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, England as the result of a split from the Rugby Football Union (RFU) over the issue of payments to players. The rules of the game governed by the new Northern Rugby Football Union progressively changed from those of the RFU with the specific aim of producing a faster and more entertaining game to appeal to spectators, on whose income the new organisation and its members depended. Due to its high-velocity contact, cardio-based endurance and minimal use of body protection, rugby league is widely regarded as the toughest and most brutal collision sport in the world.
Women's gridiron football, more commonly known as women's tackle football, women's American football, women's Canadian football, or simply women's football, is a form of gridiron football played by women. Most leagues play by similar rules to the men's game. Women primarily play on a semi-professional or amateur level in the United States. Very few high schools or colleges offer the sport solely for women and girls. However, on occasion, it is permissible for a female player to join the otherwise male team.
Flag football is a variant of American football where, instead of tackling players to the ground, the defensive team must remove a flag or flag belt from the ball carrier ("deflagging") to end a down. The sport has a strong amateur following with several national and international competitions each year sponsored by various associations but is most popularly played in America where it was invented.
In professional sports, as opposed to amateur sports, participants receive payment for their performance. Professionalism in sport has come to the fore through a combination of developments. Mass media and increased leisure have brought larger audiences, so that sports organizations or teams can command large incomes. As a result, more sportspeople can afford to make sport their primary career, devoting the training time necessary to increase skills, physical condition, and experience to modern levels of achievement. This proficiency has also helped boost the popularity of sports. In most sports played professionally there are many more amateur than professional players, though amateurs and professionals do not usually compete.
Gridiron football, also known as North American football, or in North America as simply football, is a family of football team sports primarily played in the United States and Canada. American football, which uses 11 players, is the form played in the United States and the best known form of gridiron football worldwide, while Canadian football, which uses 12 players, predominates in Canada. Other derivative varieties include arena football, flag football and amateur games such as touch and street football. Football is played at professional, collegiate, high school, semi-professional, and amateur levels.
Keith J. Bulluck is an American former professional football player who was a linebacker for eleven seasons in the National Football League (NFL). After playing college football for the Syracuse Orange, he was selected by the Tennessee Titans in the first round in the 2000 NFL Draft. He had a ten-year career with the Titans, which included a Pro Bowl selection in 2003. He played for the New York Giants in 2010.
Sports are an important part of culture in the United States. Historically, the national sport has been baseball. However, in more recent decades, American football has been the most popular sport in terms of broadcast viewership audience. Basketball has grown into the mainstream American sports scene since the 1980s, with ice hockey and soccer doing the same around the turn of the 21st century. These sports comprise the "Big Five". In the first half of the 20th century, boxing and collegiate football were among the most popular sports after baseball. Golf, tennis, and collegiate basketball are other spectator sports with longstanding popularity. Most recently, Mixed martial arts, has been breaking records in attendance and broadcast viewership for all combat sports.
A contact sport is any sport where physical contact between competitors, or their environment, is an integral part of the game both as the result of intentional or incidental actions by the players. In contact sports not only are some forms of contact acceptable it is encouraged in some aspects of the game such as tackling. This is in contrast to noncontact sports were players often have no opportunity to make contact with each other and the laws of the game may expressly forbid contact. As the type of contact is not equal between all sports, most sports define the types of contact that falls within the laws of the game, while outlawing other types of physical contact that might be considered expressly dangerous such as a High tackle or Spear tackle, or against the spirit of the game such as striking below the belt or other unsportsmanlike conduct. Where there is a limit as to how much contact is acceptable most sports have a mechanism to call a foul by the referee, umpire or similar official when an offence is deemed to have occurred.
Ryan Darrell McNeil is a former American college and professional football player who was a defensive back in the National Football League (NFL) for eleven seasons. He played college football for the University of Miami, and earned All-American honors. He was drafted by the Detroit Lions in the second round of the 1993 NFL Draft, and also played professionally for the St. Louis Rams, Cleveland Browns, Dallas Cowboys, San Diego Chargers and Denver Broncos of the NFL.
American football, also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with possession of the oval-shaped football, attempts to advance down the field by running with the ball or passing it, while the defense, the team without possession of the ball, aims to stop the offense's advance and to take control of the ball for themselves. The offense must advance at least ten yards in four downs or plays; if they fail, they turn over the football to the defense, but if they succeed, they are given a new set of four downs to continue the drive. Points are scored primarily by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone for a touchdown or kicking the ball through the opponent's goalposts for a field goal. The team with the most points at the end of a game wins.
The lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and other non-heterosexual or non-cisgender (LGBTQ+) community is prevalent within sports across the world.
The Elite Football League of India (EFLI) is a professional American football league based in India. It was founded with eight franchises in 2011, and now has 23 franchises throughout South Asia, among whom 20 located in India, two in Sri Lanka and one in Pakistan. The league has had only one season till now.
Wade Alan Davis II is an American speaker, activist, writer, educator and former American football player.
Concussions, a type of mild traumatic brain injury, are a frequent concern for those playing sports, from children and teenagers to professional athletes. Repeated concussions are known to cause neurological disorders, particularly chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), which in professional athletes has led to premature retirement, erratic behavior and even suicide. A sports-related concussion is defined as a "complex pathophysiological process affecting the brain, induced by biomechanical forces". Because concussions cannot be seen on X-rays or CT scans, attempts to prevent concussions have been difficult.
The American 7s Football League (A7FL) is a professional league in the United States which plays a seven-man version of gridiron football called American 7s Football. Launched in 2015, its games are played without football helmets or other protective equipment. The A7FL is the only organized level of competition in American 7s football.
Lafoga Jordan Mailata is an Australian professional American football offensive tackle for the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League (NFL). He previously played rugby league for the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs under-18s team and the South Sydney Rabbitohs on their under-20s team. He joined the NFL via the league's International Player Pathway Program and was selected in the 7th round, 233rd overall by the Philadelphia Eagles in the 2018 NFL Draft.
Daniel Faalele is an Australian professional American football offensive tackle for the Baltimore Ravens of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Minnesota.
Jacob Smillie is a British-born duel code rugby union & rugby league player, who last played for Swinton Lions in the RFL Championship. Smillie plays on the wing.
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