Not be jingoist about this. I'm genuinely curious.
I really enjoy watching American Football and am suitably impressed by the athletic prowess and professionalism on display - except when it comes to kicking.
I appreciate that the football they use is smaller and more difficult to kick accurately but even so....
My vague understanding is that if you are from overseas you would need to come to the US to try out. If you are a top internaitonal rugby player, why would you bother? You earn bvery good money, you are doing a lot more than kicking and your job security is a lot better. Added to which, there is a real skill to it that would take at least some time to acquire.
He could be sure of doing better than Dellingpole did.
That poll result for Dellingpole is one of my all time favorites!
Out of a sample of 1,503 the AShcroft poll founds 2 people saying they were voting for Dellingpole. The total was too small even to be alloacted a notional 1% - and this was before his Suzanne Moore Tweets.
I dimly recall from the early days of Channel 4's coverage of the sport here that there was an English kicker (John Smith?) who played successfully for a few seasons with the Patriots. The story went that a US coach on holiday in the UK had seen him playing soccer for Torquay (or some similarly modest outfit) and recruited him for a trial. It went well and the young man was suddenly earning the kind of salary that would have made even the top soccer stars envious.
I always thought that if he could do it, so could plenty of others - and particularly those playing Rugby rather than Association football.
Obviously John Smith adapted pretty well, and maybe he had some rare talent, but all the same I have always thought US coaches might be missing a trick by not scouting more around the soccer leagues of Europe.
But I do appreciate the kind of differences and difficulties you highlight.
Your question made me curious - a quick google search coughs up this article about foreign born players in the NFL. It's 4 years old but interesting nonetheless.
Every year the 32 NFL teams have 53 man rosters totalling 1696 players.
Because it would be nice to see a straight answer to a straight question?
Sadly people with nominally important roles give up the freedom to speak plainly on all occasions. The Governor of the Bank of England, for instance, needs to be very careful, as does the Chancellor.
Unless you are an international then you are going to be making far, far less money in club rugby than American Football. Even many internationals may be on far less - what does the average Scot / Wal / Irish international get.
Then bear in mind not may people are consistent internationals for say over 5 years.
The total money in American Football must be 100 times greater than in rugby. How much each player gets within that obviously depends upon many factors but remember the figures posted below were minimums.
What's the minimum salary earnt in the Aviva Premiership - probably under £50k I imagine.
The Aviva Premiership has a salary cap of approx. £4m for the WHOLE TEAM - that's less than what many top American football players would earn.
My little friends at The Press Project blow that the DT is going to £2 per month.That will not deter those seeking some quality journalism.I guess that makes my £20 a month to the Guardian very good value. Also,what schools did you people go to?I have been informed I have been awarded an England cap for my last post.Bloody Etonians wherever you look.
If you got glassed in the face in a pub by a violent thug, your face was horribly scarred and you lost social confidence as a result, how would you feel if you had to wait for NHS cosmetic surgery to reduce the scarring because a man who was not very well endowed was having a penis enlargement to boost his self esteem?
Scale of 0-10, 0 being "it's fair enough, he has just as much cause to need this treatment as I", 10 being "what planet are you on? Anyone got a pint glass handy?"
I have it,the answer, for all you Pb Tories desperately plotting away.Hatton in Cheshire would make an ideal constituency for Johnson.An immediate by-election would go down very well.Go for it Boris!
@MikeL The Aviva Premiership has a salary cap of approx. £4m for the WHOLE TEAM - that's less than what many top American football players would earn.
It's less than ALL the top NFL players earn, and many who are less than 'top'.
The NFL salary cap per team for 2013 is $123 million.
Peyton Manning has guaranteed this season $58 million, Sam Bradford $50 million, wide receivers Andre and Calvin Johnson are guaranteed $48 million this season.
@Southam - the salary I quoted is the minimum. A good kicker will be paid serious money, probably in the millions.
Sebastian Janikowski, of the Raiders, has a total guaranteed salary of $9 million in 2013.
Steven Ghostkowski of the Patriots has a total guarantee of $5.1 million in 2013
Indeed. It's completely absurd to suggest that a good kicker is going to earn more money playing rugby than American Football.
To earn even remotely serious money playing rugby you need to be an international which for most people means chasing just one vacancy - you can only play for one country.
In contrast there are 32 professional American Football teams and the above figures put the money on offer into context.
@Sam - how would you feel if you had to wait for NHS cosmetic surgery to reduce the scarring because a man who was not very well endowed was having a penis enlargement to boost his self esteem?
Hire a private dick to eradicate him? ;-)
Alternatively rub Viagra in your eyes to make yourself look hard, to try to scare the surgeon into doing you first ;-)
Don't be ridiculous, he's just ashamed that he's been reduced to a policy of deliberate house price inflation, every first year GCSE economics pupil knows what the effect of pumping extra demand into the housing market will be, and is intended to be.
All he has to do is avoid giving a quote that will be used on the front pages of the papers.
Especially if it turns out to be wrong - say house prices go down for unconnected reasons (but are still higher than they would be in the absence of a mortgage scheme) then he would be roundly abused - and probably sued - for a public projection saying they would rise.
The Chancellor should not comment on the price of financial or other assets.
Moscow Times reveals the real reason why Germany and Russia are reluctant allies:
Putin's personal relations with the current EU leaders could hardly be worse, and he does nothing to improve them. Most conspicuously, the president insists on taking his big black Labrador Retriever Koni to his meetings with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, despite knowing that she cannot stand dogs. It is no surprise that Merkel keeps him at a distance. Such infantile pettiness belongs to the sandbox and harms Russia's national interests.
@SeanT - You're like someone paying £10 an hour to park in the Sahara desert. I think this makes you, by clinical definition, a moron.
Unless £5 of that per hour went towards his membership of the Sahara Dessert Canoe Club, in which case you could argue he's an incurable optimist - and a moron.
The end of the UKBA is quite significant. Goes against the previous fashion of quangoisation (if that's a word). If Mrs May fails to sort it out it will become rather noticable. So she must fancy her chances at making a difference. I hope she does, because competence at managing both legal and illegal immigrantsi s rather lacking and is becoming increasingly important. If she does get a grip, will it have an effect on UKIP's vote share?
Don't be ridiculous, he's just ashamed that he's been reduced to a policy of deliberate house price inflation, every first year GCSE economics pupil knows what the effect of pumping extra demand into the housing market will be, and is intended to be.
Supply isn't fixed; the nature/mix of purchasers also affects the complexities of the market: what sort of houses are built, and where. If you believe that a first-year GCSE Economist can explain it you are dangerously oversimplifying the market.
You're paying the Guardian £20 a month? For what? You are aware that their website is entirely free and unmetered. So you can get it all for zip. You do know this. Right?
You're like someone paying £10 an hour to park in the Sahara desert. I think this makes you, by clinical definition, a moron.
Have you sent your contribution to OGH's hair restoration fund yet Sean?
I don't even think you believe what you are posting" We all know what happens here, now the coward Osborne hides away from difficult interviews and every poor junior Treasury Minister gets humiliated trying to deny the obvious.
I thought it was Tyrie asking - so presumably in an official forum. No one should deny it, but it wouldn't be appropriate to give a quote. That said if a 'government minister' says house prices will rise, that is less bad than the 'chancellor' or the 'pm' saying it.
As always, you are focused on the politics. I care about the governance of the country.
I have no doubt the top kickers in the NFL will earn millions. My point is that the top kickers in rugby are generally internationals and so get a big whack themselves. What incentive do they have to travel to the US for try-outs when the best they can realistically hope for is to get a spot as a scond choice? They can stay put and earn good money doing what they love. For the same reason you very rarely see union players switching to league now; all the moves are the other way.
Yes you care about the governance of the country of course you do.
LOL
I do actually. My family has played a role in the economic and political success of the UK (as we know it today) for about 300 years, and in Ireland for closer to 800.
I have a great deal of affection for the place and don't want to see it ruined.
Yougov poll shows support for drones - 55% would support an attack to kill an overseas terrorist, 67% if no innocent civilians were killed and 43% if 2/3 civilians were killed
Interesting little tidbit of news on the Cyprus bailout.
Capital.gr reported that a prior agreement to sell branches to Piraeus Bank of Greece had already been finalised and that those branches are excluded from the measures imposed by the bailout agreement.
It would be interesting to know who held accounts at these three branches. One would hope that none of them were bank directors nor pfficials nor any persons involved in the government or parliament of Cyprus.
There's no way in the world Portishead is going to increase in population from 22,000 to 38,000.
Obviously claiming to be the most populous town without a railway station is a ploy used to generate sympathy by campaigners.
The problem with giving the title to to Newcastle-under-Lyme is that the town centre is only two miles from the centre of Stoke-on-Trent where there is a railway station so it's a bit of a spurious claim, if technically correct.
Sadly people with nominally important roles give up the freedom to speak plainly on all occasions. The Governor of the Bank of England, for instance, needs to be very careful, as does the Chancellor.
... every first year GCSE economics pupil knows what the effect of pumping extra demand into the housing market will be, and is intended to be.
The problem with first year GCSE Economics pupils is that they are not taught how to research the markets and sectors on which they are asked to comment.
Had they been so taught, they would have identified Osborne's intercession in the mortgage finance market as a move to stimulate demand for residential property with a focus on new builds.
They would also have discovered that the UK private sector housebuilders were now emerging from a deep recession caused by the 2008 collapse in demand for houses.
Osborne's intervention is perfectly timed to take advantage of the new found health of the residential housing construction sector. Being able to stimulate demand and supply at the same time should help Osborne avoid an overheating of the market and keep price rises to reasonable proportions.
Two major housebuilding companies, Beltway and Bovis, have announced very positive financial results in the past two days.
The Chairman of Beltway commenting on current trading and outlook for his company stated:
Since the start of the calendar year, there has been an encouraging increase in the number of visitors to sites and this, coupled with marginal improvements in the accessibility of higher loan to value mortgage finance, continues to support the reservation rate. Reservations in the six weeks since 1 February have increased to 133 per week (2012 – 120), representing an increase of over 10% compared with the same period last year. As a result, the Group has reserved or legally completed 94% of its current full year volume target [in the first six months of the reporting period].
The availability of affordable, higher loan to value mortgage products has remained a constraint that has tempered consumer demand. The Board welcomes the recently announced budget measures to support the housing market. Whilst it is too early to assess the effect these measures may have, we remain hopeful that they will lead to improvements in mortgage accessibility.
It is quite clear George Osborne is on his way to get an A* in his Economics GCSE paper. He appears to have done the kind of specialist research that the more ordinary pupils have neglected.
I shall leave it to other posters to suggest whether George's success is due to the superior efforts of his school and university or whether it is merely the expected outcome of the Chancellor's innate brilliance.
Mansfield was the largest town with no station until the 1990s / 2000s, when the Robin Hood Line opened.
Corby's a strange one: it's station was closed under Beeching, but the line remained open for freight. A station then reopened in the 1980s but the services were too irregular, and it closed once again. Then finally a new station opened in 2009. Privatisation working where BR failed. ;-)
The line to Portishead is still open, taking freght traffic (mainly cars) from Portishead docks. Thousands of cars can be seen lined up from the M5 Avonmouth bridge. The allege reason for the lack of passenger services is cost: the line would need resignalling.
However it is not just a case of whether a place has a station; it is down to the quality and frequency of services, along with the siting of the station. Some stations are very inconvenient for the main city centre. To a small extent this is the case in Derby: the station is a fairly dreary ten-minute walk from the shops (the old GN Friargate station was right in the centre).
As for the remotest station: aside from Corrour in Scotland, Berney Arms in Norfolk is about as near to the middle of nowhere as it is possible to get in England, at 3.5 miles from the nearest road. Again in Scotland, Alntabreac is a lonely place.
@Southam - this all started with Peter the Punter asking me a question.
I have not suggested that kickers should come to the NFL or CFL.
Going from memory - and I could easily be wrong on this - I recall that Jonny Wilkinson made about £325k a year, split between his club and international contracts. Presumably he also had endorsements which would increase that.
If that figure is true, even if he sits on a bench and never plays a down, by year 3 he is earning $630k, and so on. Kickers are rarely on minimum contracts, so he would doubtless get quite a bit more.
If said kicker lived in Florida or several other states, he would not pay any state income tax.
Would he be happier doing that or playing rugby in the UK? Depends on the person I suppose. There all sorts of cultural and lifestyle issues to consider in addition.
I grew up in Burslem, which used to have a station on the loop line... my early years were spent exploring and secret-denning around the ruins before they turned it into the Greenway.
I grew up in Burslem, which used to have a station on the loop line... my early years were spent exploring and secret-denning around the ruins before they turned it into the Greenway.
London also has a Greenway from Stratford to near Beckton. Part of it was used for Olympic access from West Ham station back in the summer. However, it isn't a former rail line, but the Northern Outfall Sewer. Fortunately it is covered up!
Sorry to hear about DH. But it'll be a good test of the theory that UKIP is also a threat to Labour heartlands.
Will that depend on how the media paint the narrative? A flounce off to be with his wife and her family in USA causing non essential election a la Louise Mensch, or a man of promise, integrity and honour off to save the world...
The Daily Mirror is reporting that David Miliband is to resign tomorrow as MP for South Shields, triggering a by-election to be presumably held on 2nd May at the same time as the local elections.
Both the Tories and LDs are deeply unpopular in South Shields so I'd immediately say that UKIP will be able to take second place.
I wouldn't have thought Labour are in danger of losing the seat to UKIP unless they make some kind of serious error like selecting a very poor candidate.
Comments
http://lordashcroftpolls.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Corby-poll-2-full-data-tables.pdf
Every year the 32 NFL teams have 53 man rosters totalling 1696 players.
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/222241-foreign-pro-football-players
Unless you are an international then you are going to be making far, far less money in club rugby than American Football. Even many internationals may be on far less - what does the average Scot / Wal / Irish international get.
Then bear in mind not may people are consistent internationals for say over 5 years.
The total money in American Football must be 100 times greater than in rugby. How much each player gets within that obviously depends upon many factors but remember the figures posted below were minimums.
What's the minimum salary earnt in the Aviva Premiership - probably under £50k I imagine.
The Aviva Premiership has a salary cap of approx. £4m for the WHOLE TEAM - that's less than what many top American football players would earn.
Sebastian Janikowski, of the Raiders, has a total guaranteed salary of $9 million in 2013.
Steven Ghostkowski of the Patriots has a total guarantee of $5.1 million in 2013
Also,what schools did you people go to?I have been informed I have been awarded an England cap for my last post.Bloody Etonians wherever you look.
If you got glassed in the face in a pub by a violent thug, your face was horribly scarred and you lost social confidence as a result, how would you feel if you had to wait for NHS cosmetic surgery to reduce the scarring because a man who was not very well endowed was having a penis enlargement to boost his self esteem?
Scale of 0-10, 0 being "it's fair enough, he has just as much cause to need this treatment as I", 10 being "what planet are you on? Anyone got a pint glass handy?"
The Aviva Premiership has a salary cap of approx. £4m for the WHOLE TEAM - that's less than what many top American football players would earn.
It's less than ALL the top NFL players earn, and many who are less than 'top'.
The NFL salary cap per team for 2013 is $123 million.
Peyton Manning has guaranteed this season $58 million, Sam Bradford $50 million, wide receivers Andre and Calvin Johnson are guaranteed $48 million this season.
http://www.spotrac.com/top-salaries/nfl/guaranteed/
To earn even remotely serious money playing rugby you need to be an international which for most people means chasing just one vacancy - you can only play for one country.
In contrast there are 32 professional American Football teams and the above figures put the money on offer into context.
how would you feel if you had to wait for NHS cosmetic surgery to reduce the scarring because a man who was not very well endowed was having a penis enlargement to boost his self esteem?
Hire a private dick to eradicate him? ;-)
Alternatively rub Viagra in your eyes to make yourself look hard, to try to scare the surgeon into doing you first ;-)
Haha I like that "Viagra in the eyes to look hard" gag
Especially if it turns out to be wrong - say house prices go down for unconnected reasons (but are still higher than they would be in the absence of a mortgage scheme) then he would be roundly abused - and probably sued - for a public projection saying they would rise.
The Chancellor should not comment on the price of financial or other assets.
Putin's personal relations with the current EU leaders could hardly be worse, and he does nothing to improve them. Most conspicuously, the president insists on taking his big black Labrador Retriever Koni to his meetings with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, despite knowing that she cannot stand dogs. It is no surprise that Merkel keeps him at a distance. Such infantile pettiness belongs to the sandbox and harms Russia's national interests.
Unless £5 of that per hour went towards his membership of the Sahara Dessert Canoe Club, in which case you could argue he's an incurable optimist - and a moron.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0At91c3wX1Wu5dFkzTjFrRmJRN3F6ODBTTEs4NGFhcUE#gid=0
Have you sent your contribution to OGH's hair restoration fund yet Sean?
As always, you are focused on the politics. I care about the governance of the country.
(oops! pressed "post comment"!)
Dr Beeching feature on The One Show...
What is the biggest town in Britain without a railway station?
I have no doubt the top kickers in the NFL will earn millions. My point is that the top kickers in rugby are generally internationals and so get a big whack themselves. What incentive do they have to travel to the US for try-outs when the best they can realistically hope for is to get a spot as a scond choice? They can stay put and earn good money doing what they love. For the same reason you very rarely see union players switching to league now; all the moves are the other way.
I have a great deal of affection for the place and don't want to see it ruined.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9953071/Sketch-They-come-over-here-taking-our-seats....html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/9953474/Welsh-singer-takes-Chinas-Got-Talent-by-storm.html
I think they said Portishead... Will rewind and check...
EDIT. "The most rapidly growing town in the whole of Europe, it will soon be the biggest town in the uk without a station"
http://playpolitical.typepad.com/uk_conservative/2013/03/william-hague-visits-a-rescue-camp-with-angelina-jolie.html
This website agrees it is Portishead:
http://www.portisheadrailwaygroup.org/
http://www.ilkestontrainstation.co.uk/campaign.html
Capital.gr reported that a prior agreement to sell branches to Piraeus Bank of Greece had already been finalised and that those branches are excluded from the measures imposed by the bailout agreement.
It would be interesting to know who held accounts at these three branches. One would hope that none of them were bank directors nor pfficials nor any persons involved in the government or parliament of Cyprus.
Or am I being too cynical?
It only has a population of 22,000.
Burntwood in Staffordshire has a population of about 27,000 and no railway station.
Hmmmm. Well they say Portishead WILL be the largest such town, depending on rapid housing development.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-16552760
Obviously claiming to be the most populous town without a railway station is a ploy used to generate sympathy by campaigners.
The problem with giving the title to to Newcastle-under-Lyme is that the town centre is only two miles from the centre of Stoke-on-Trent where there is a railway station so it's a bit of a spurious claim, if technically correct.
However, he was right not to make a comment on asset prices
Actually Ilkeston almost comes in that category because it's very nearly joined up to both Derby and Nottingham.
Joke joke!!
Are you a fan of Portillos GB Railway Journeys?
'Well if you're defending Osbornes sub prime-house inflation plan then it's clear you've learned sod all down the centuries.'
No,sub prime was Brown's Northern Rock 125% self certified/no questions asked mortgages,makes Osborne look prudent.
Come on England!
Had they been so taught, they would have identified Osborne's intercession in the mortgage finance market as a move to stimulate demand for residential property with a focus on new builds.
They would also have discovered that the UK private sector housebuilders were now emerging from a deep recession caused by the 2008 collapse in demand for houses.
Osborne's intervention is perfectly timed to take advantage of the new found health of the residential housing construction sector. Being able to stimulate demand and supply at the same time should help Osborne avoid an overheating of the market and keep price rises to reasonable proportions.
Two major housebuilding companies, Beltway and Bovis, have announced very positive financial results in the past two days.
The Chairman of Beltway commenting on current trading and outlook for his company stated:
Since the start of the calendar year, there has been an encouraging increase in the number of visitors to sites and this, coupled with marginal improvements in the accessibility of higher loan to value mortgage finance, continues to support the reservation rate. Reservations in the six weeks since 1 February have increased to 133 per week (2012 – 120), representing an increase of over 10% compared with the same period last year. As a result, the Group has reserved or legally completed 94% of its current full year volume target [in the first six months of the reporting period].
The availability of affordable, higher loan to value mortgage products has remained a constraint that has tempered consumer demand. The Board welcomes the recently announced budget measures to support the housing market. Whilst it is too early to assess the effect these measures may have, we remain hopeful that they will lead to improvements in mortgage accessibility.
It is quite clear George Osborne is on his way to get an A* in his Economics GCSE paper. He appears to have done the kind of specialist research that the more ordinary pupils have neglected.
I shall leave it to other posters to suggest whether George's success is due to the superior efforts of his school and university or whether it is merely the expected outcome of the Chancellor's innate brilliance.
Possibly my fav show, makes January bearable! Fantastic clobber to boot!
I would love to go to Wyndonham Station in Norfolk with the lovely looking cafe, have you visited?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8ZwflB3vpg&feature=youtube_gdata_player
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21946916
http://www.politico.com/blogs/click/2013/03/photo-of-the-day-kerry-heads-a-soccer-ball-160201.html
Corby's a strange one: it's station was closed under Beeching, but the line remained open for freight. A station then reopened in the 1980s but the services were too irregular, and it closed once again. Then finally a new station opened in 2009. Privatisation working where BR failed. ;-)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corby_railway_station
The line to Portishead is still open, taking freght traffic (mainly cars) from Portishead docks. Thousands of cars can be seen lined up from the M5 Avonmouth bridge. The allege reason for the lack of passenger services is cost: the line would need resignalling.
However it is not just a case of whether a place has a station; it is down to the quality and frequency of services, along with the siting of the station. Some stations are very inconvenient for the main city centre. To a small extent this is the case in Derby: the station is a fairly dreary ten-minute walk from the shops (the old GN Friargate station was right in the centre).
As for the remotest station: aside from Corrour in Scotland, Berney Arms in Norfolk is about as near to the middle of nowhere as it is possible to get in England, at 3.5 miles from the nearest road. Again in Scotland, Alntabreac is a lonely place.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altnabreac_railway_station
it's The Immigration Game...
www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/03/25/immigration-quiz-who-said-it_n_2949752.html?utm_hp_ref=tw
I have not suggested that kickers should come to the NFL or CFL.
Going from memory - and I could easily be wrong on this - I recall that Jonny Wilkinson made about £325k a year, split between his club and international contracts. Presumably he also had endorsements which would increase that.
If that figure is true, even if he sits on a bench and never plays a down, by year 3 he is earning $630k, and so on. Kickers are rarely on minimum contracts, so he would doubtless get quite a bit more.
If said kicker lived in Florida or several other states, he would not pay any state income tax.
Would he be happier doing that or playing rugby in the UK? Depends on the person I suppose. There all sorts of cultural and lifestyle issues to consider in addition.
To sum up, this is more than a money decision.
I grew up in Burslem, which used to have a station on the loop line... my early years were spent exploring and secret-denning around the ruins before they turned it into the Greenway.
http://www.thepotteries.org/loop_line/burslem_3.htm
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/david-miliband-quit-mp-labour-1786858
He's going to work for Thunderbirds?
Does his wife look like Lady Penelope?
Milibands are Go!!!
Life imitating art -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11409402
Nicknamed "Brains", after the Thunderbirds puppet, by Alastair Campbell, the unworldly "geek" tag has been hard to shift.
I think Berney Arms is served by two (three on Saturday, five on Sunday) trains a day in each direction and the platform is just one carriage long.
I wish him the best of luck for his future life and new career.
But I don't wish him any ill either, and with an American wife, I can see the Menschesque reasoning for this move.
NFL kickers do nothing else.
It does all look a bit depressing for those who have sat in the ministerial limousines.
"David Miliband to quit as MP for charity job in New York". Daily Mirror.
England 1-0 Montenegro
Not a bad performance by England at all.
Both the Tories and LDs are deeply unpopular in South Shields so I'd immediately say that UKIP will be able to take second place.
Putting my theory to the test
Tory vs UKIP South Shields match bet...
8/13 6/5 Tory fav
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/election2010/results/constituency/e19.stm