Next Big Sport in America — Rugby

My friend, Nick Brown says that soccer is a sissy sport. Nick is a rugby fan and has no room for soccer in his life.

Rugby, in case you've never seen a game, is a cross between American football, soccer and a bar brawl. When it comes to rough sports, it's right up there with Aussie Rules Football.On top of all that, the players are dressed like they are going to play a few sets of tennis.

The NFL is going to try to bring rugby to the U.S. ..

The NFL Network will broadcast a rugby match in August featuring a European team and a squad comprised of some US blokes as a kind of litmus test to see if a league would be viable stateside.

The NFL reportedly wants to get into bed with a pro rugby league to help fill a programming void in the offseason, because there is clearly just so much ‘Total Access’ you can air before viewers drift off to the History channel to watch Chumlee say something stupid on 'Pawn Stars.'

It’s also worth noting the NFL, which is trying to make the game safer amidst the seemingly growing number of concussions player suffer, would throw its weight behind a sport like rugby. To many Americans, the game seems to be nothing more than a combination of "kill the man with the ball" and the Good Samaritan who runs down street to tackle the thief who stole an old woman's purse.

Of course, maybe the NFL is onto something by importing a sport from another continent. America has done it with soccer. If rugby works, you know it’s only a matter of time before curling goes big-time in the US.

Then full contact croquet.