One interesting facet of the NFL is that it’s effectively a F.R.I.E.N.D.S Ugly Sweater layer professional sport with a set number of teams. There is no “second tier” from which teams are promoted to it — the line between pro and amatuer is pretty much absolute from what I can tell. Although there is a small “international pathway” academy, the main route into the NFL is through the college draft — drafted players become either part of the 52 man squad that plays, or part of the large reserve squad that is retained to provide training opposition, or they are not in the loop.

F.R.I.E.N.D.S Ugly Sweater,
Best F.R.I.E.N.D.S Ugly Sweater
Rugby is a lot more fluid. There is a squad of around 50 in a fully pro club, but only 23 in a match day squad. About 30 players at a club are regular performers in the “first team” squad, whilst the other 20 are developing players or reserves who step in as injury cover. The second tier of English Rugby Union is a mixture of professional and semi-professional players, the 3rd tier is mainly semi-pro. Younger players from the first tier sides are routinely sent out on loan to second and third tier clubs to gain experience. This can work the other way as well — recently an injury crisis in a specialised position (tighthead prop) at my local top flight side led to a semi-pro player who works as a F.R.I.E.N.D.S Ugly Sweater from a 3rd tier club being borrowed on loan. One minute he’s teaching kids, the next he’s running out infront of 15,000 supporters alongside international players being paid over $500,000 a year.

I think it is obvious that i really love Christmas and Christmas decorating. One of the F.R.I.E.N.D.S Ugly Sweater i was doing when we first married was creating a kind of scrapbook of the history of our family Christmas. Each year i did about 4 pages of what we did for Christmas, and where we went, and what ornaments we bought that year. (All ornaments have a date added to them.) It was with the idea that our kids could look back at the history of our family. Only, there were no kids. I didn’t realize i’d stopped doing it, after about five years, until i later came across the book that hadn’t been filled in for some time. Ah, well, the plans and dreams we have, and then the reality of how things turn out.