Which league has the hardest hits? The NHL, or NFL?

Don’t get me wrong, both have the potential. I think the NFL tips the scales because of 1 – Gang Tackling and 2 – flying missiles. I’ve yet to see a hockey player fly full speed and launch themselves at someone. Also, hockey players typically aren’t airborn when they are hit, which causes a nasty whip reaction.

i agree that the ice is a harder surface to fall on, but i’m trying to gage the hit itself, not the landing. :)

Hey guys, first time post here.

Both sports are pretty violent, but having played hockey through college (DIII Club, but still pretty competitive in upstate NY), football in middle school, and rugby in college and post college, I gotta say Football.

Hockey you can lay out some solid hits and you can get hurt when the shot comes from the blind spot. But, people don’t leave their feet to check. I personally learned why in JV in high school. This kid hit me pretty hard and I went for some payback. I had him lined up in the corner and tried to deliver a hit with my shoulder, through the air. The guy moved and I almost knocked myself out on the boards slamming my head on the top of the boards. When I got back to the bench seeing stars, coach said, “That’s why you don’t do that.” Checks are mostly in the hips and lower body. Even those shots in the vid where the checker gets low and the guys flips over, its generally a lot more dramatic than painful. Sure you might be rattled, but the usually the worst part of the hit is hitting the ice in a prone position. The hits I was afraid of were when you go flying into the corner to get a puck and you don’t know if you’re clear or someone is lining you up (I’m a lighter guy playing wing, so I’d have to go get the dumped puck against defense men who generally outweighed me by 15 to 20 pounds. Sometimes you can line people up and use the upper body, maybe get a shoulder into someone’s head who isn’t looking. Also, you have to be careful about having your hands and elbows up for roughing calls. And of course, if you can see the guy’s numbers, that’s also a penalty. To be honest, the ice being so slippery doesn’t feel that hard with all the pads either. I think the pain of the turf is that the friction just stops you on contact. A lot of the pain is caused by the abrupt stopping, not the hit or hitting the surface per se.

Football, I think what makes it potentially devastating is that guys use their helmet as a weapon. All the guys who got knocked out this weekend, the defender was leading with the helmet. In rugby, which is pretty violent, too, you don’t lead with the head because you will get hurt. You hit with the body upright on occasion, but more often, your getting low and tying up the legs. Take away the helmet and shoulder pads in football and you will see a precipitous decline in the kinds of injuries in the news this week.

Its the darn helmet in football that makes the sport so dangerous.

But all in all, I will agree with TO and 85 that hockey players are tougher. :P

Sorry for being so wordy.