Gents:

Introduced to rugby late in life, in, of all places, Kazakhstan. For some unknown reason, a Soviet army instructor decided that rugby should get attention from the Central Sporting Committee of the Army of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Me? I'm a lover, not a fighter, but the wife played scrum half for the CSC (in Russian it's "Ts Ess Ka") for nine years.

The first weekend I was in Kazakhstan, in '97, the All Blacks played the English and I bet two English guys at a bar that the English wouldn't win. That match ended up as a tie game, and I lawyered my way into free drinks for the evening.

When I compare American football with rugby, I want to weep for what has been lost.