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          What America made of the NRL Vegas spectacular

          • ESPN staffMar 3, 2024, 03:30 AM

          In introducing the magic of the NRL to one of the world's biggest sports markets, there has always been concerns over whether the audience would be able to fully grasp what was going on. American football has its similarities, but there are plenty of differences for the U.S. fans to wrap their heads around.

          It seems that not only did the game cause some confusion amongst local observers, once the telecast started some 17 minutes into the game, but there was room to have a bit of fun with what they were seeing.

          The Guardian ran a blog for the U.S. audience, which was sprinkled with amusing observations.

          "The Bunnies and Manly are off and doing whatever it is these people do, but nobody in the US can see it! We still have basketball! Total debacle!"

          "One of the Bunnies chokes a Manly player, but this seems to be fine. Nobody seemed to get too upset about it. Meanwhile, this game goes extremely fast. And these folks are hitting extremely hard. It's impressive."

          "Wait... ANOTHER player is bleeding! Is this normal? Croker Lachlan is really banged up. This is like human cockfighting. But they play on!"

          "Manly and the Bunnies come together for some extra curricular pushing and shoving as time expires. But then they hug it out it head toward the locker room. Nice of them after beating the crap out of each other for 40 minutes. Then Damien Cook speaks to the Fox Sports reporter and if my life was on the line I could not tell you even one single word of what he said."

          "Souths are at the 10 with three tackles left, and just when Manly looked like they are going to halt the drive, Latrell Mitchell finds a way to score! But Mitchell misses on the kick. I don't know how they're missing these kicks. I know the angles aren't great, but nobody is running at them. What's up with that?"

          "Well, that was a lot of fun. Chaos, but fun. Trying to figure out a new sport on the fly is daunting, but I've learned a lot. NRL may not be your thing, but if you don't respect the talent on that field as a sports fan, then you're not a real sports fan, because these teams put on a great performance. If this game came to New York, and they didn't price gouge me out of the place, I'd go and watch, no question."

          While some of the fans on X seemed to be grasping the game more readily.