Sponsorship. Everything if for sale in the NFL while rugby is a little more reserved right? Actually, I don’t think that’s true. The NFL doesn’t name its league after a sponsor. No NFL team has a sponsor logo across its jersey. Those two things are sacrosanct, and I think that’s something we can learn. The NFL has laid down the law that who the team is, and who the league is, is untouchable. Drawing a line somewhere, even in the land of beggars-can’t-be-choosers, is something to emulate.

Showboating. Despite not being a fan of the "look at me!" element of society, I am looking at showboating in a new light these days. With helmets on and hundreds of people milling around the field, it’s easy to get lost at a football game. It’s your job, after all, and when you do it well you want people to know. Employees in an office put commendation memos in their personnel file. Football plays pound their chests to tell the fans, the media, and their coaches, look, that was me, remember me. I don’t advocate that behavior in rugby (it’s counterproductive on the field) but some proper assignment of credit for players is important.

Rarity. I have written on this before. The NFL season is September to December, and the playoffs end in January. They don’t drag it on, and that heightens fan interest. Your city’s team will play no more than 11 home games in a season and for most it’s just eight. That puts a premium on tickets. For professional leagues in Europe, this concept is anathema and that’s too bad.

Techniques. Just about every coach who calls in plays or advice to his players or his assistants covers his mouth. Usually they use a playcard but sometimes they huddle with a coach or player to discuss something. Why do they do this? So someone watching TV won’t read their lips and guess their intentions. In the recent USA v. Canada test match the (Canadian) announcers mocked good-naturedly Tim Billups for keeping a card in front of his mouth. Why does he do this? Same reason. Even if the game weren’t on TV he’d do it because he wants to get in the habit. Why do we mock? Because it’s new, and maybe a little paranoid, but only paranoid until somebody takes advantage of it. (By the way, I am not sure of the announcers understood even why Billups was doing it.) We mocked headsets, coaches in a coaches box in the third level, filming games. Yes, we’ve mocked a lot of things the NFL did first, and then rugby coaches adopt it.

Instant Replay. Rugby has adopted this with great success ... possibly managed better than football.

Microphones for Officials. Again, rugby has for the most part adopted putting mics on officials so we can hear their calls and know what’s going on. They have also standardized the arm signals that go along with it. All football stuff.

Stats. Statistics are great things to help tack a game, a team, and a player. But there is no standard statistician for professional and international games. There should be. I’m not talking about scoring ... I’m talking about tackles made and missed, meters gained, line breaks ... all the sorts of things coaches are tracking. Why can’t we the fans and the media know? How many yards has Peyton Manning thrown for so far? What is Clinton Portis’ yards per carry in the second quarter?

These are just a few things. Should professional rugby be just like the NFL? No, I don’t think it should, but instead of knocking football, this week I wanted to highlight where rugby can learn.