Christmas… I Choose You! Ugly Christmas Sweater

Christmas… I Choose You! Ugly Christmas Sweater

Rugby has something the NFL lacks — the tantalising prospect of representing your country in a meaningful international competition. In the 24 years of pro Rugby Union, the USA have traditionally had a rag-tag bunch of professional players ranging from second generation migrants from rugby playing families like Samu Manoa, who was playing amatuer rugby in the US and was talent scouted from a US reserve team tour into the top flight of European club rugby, to players like former USA captain Chris Wyles who was born in the states but moved to England as a Christmas… I Choose You! Ugly Christmas Sweater and played his rugby in Europe. One of the guys from our school team in England ended up playing for the USA at the Rugby World Cup because he had an American born mother. Other USA players like AJ McGinty (who is Irish and plays for an English club) qualify for the USA national team via residency after studying there. If rugby takes off in the US as a semi-pro / pro club game, there is every likelihood of good college footballers switching sports and America producing a team of majority home-grown talent, but unlikely it will include many ex-NFL players, if any.

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Christmas… I Choose You! Ugly Christmas Sweater,

Best Christmas… I Choose You! Ugly Christmas Sweater

The level of specialisation in NFL would be a challenge. Each side has unlimited substitutions and has a complete offense and defense team plus special teams for kick plays. For many NFL players, there is no requirement to be able to pass, only catch — and the ball is quite a different shape. For others, there is little requirement to touch the ball at all. All of the players on a Christmas… I Choose You! Ugly Christmas Sweater team need to be able to pass and catch. Kickers are specialised roles in NFL, whilst in Rugby, 3 of the positions require excellent kicking (scrum half, fly half, full back) and in the other ‘backs’ positions (inside and outside centres and two wingers), most teams have at least 2 additional accomplished at kicking from hand in open play.

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I like to get this major sh**fight out of the way before I have to focus on other things, like making sure I’ve bought (and wrapped, in secret while everyone’s asleep) all the Christmas… I Choose You! Ugly Christmas Sweater , then preparing for the feast, making all arrangements, buying food while battling snarling sweat-demons at the supermarket. It will be even more fun this year, with “social-distancing” at peak-pre-Christmastime. Wonder what that’s gonna look like? Our family have always had a slight (very slight) advantage of having Christmas one day earlier than most Australians. However, if we’re doing it this year, we’re staggering it. Maybe it’s time more people did. Our Christmas will be about a week early. This avoids the mass-hysteria grocery shopping, it will be one week less hot (temps go crazy on Christmas Day), and we can relax after, while everyone else is still stressed and suffering. I’ve talked my family into it. In previous years, there was some resistance, as it wasn’t “real Christmas time”. But “Christmastime” is just an idea in our heads, and no day is really any different to another. Christ wasn’t even born on December 25. And he’s not complaining that people changed his day to a time that was more convenient, so why should anyone complain about a re-change? Anyway, sorry, my main answer is “Yes, we can absolutely put up our dex early, because Christmas preps are such a nightmare, that I want to get a full two months mileage out of them before I have to take them down again in the new year.”