One thing that I tell people:

I tell people that rugby is safer than American football. This is usually when they question my preference for my children to play rugby over football. "Rugby is so dangerous," they protest. I disagree. I also like rugby's fan culture more than football's. If I'm going to be counted among loud, often drunk, overfed maniacs, I'd rather it be a group of maniacs who are aware that there is a world that exists outside of the United States. But the whole safety thing is a catching point, because people will remind me that football players wear pads, whereas rugby players might sport a half-inch-thick layer of foam body armor only if they are a small player, and most of them are not. Also, they get to wear a cool foam hat if they've had a concussion.

The thing that makes the difference in safety, I contend, is that a player rolled up in 40 pounds of hard, molded plastic is loads more likely to blindly, stupidly throw himself at another player and then jump up and down on top of him. That's football. And that's why so many people break their arms and legs playing it. The only rule, as far as I know, in place to protect players' bodies is no spearing, which means they can't ram each other with their heads. So no broken necks, but you still could get one of these:

You don't see that very often in rugby! Usually, rugby injuries are closer to this:

One type of injury makes you look cool, the other one makes your life miserable. So I was delighted this morning to read something in the paper - is "in the paper" still the appropriate term if I read it on the newspaper's website? Maybe that phrase needs to be updated - I read on the paper (that sounds even weirder) a quote by a rugby star-turned-football player at the University of Utah who says what I have been saying all along. But he is six foot three and 235 pounds of muscle, so maybe more people will listen to him (for the record, I am six foot one and 205 pounds of cheeseburgers and grape juice):

"Pads make it a different game," Palamo said. "A lot of people think pads will protect you. But all they really do is give the other people a chance to throw their whole body at you without worrying about getting hurt."

There you go. Pads make it a different game.