Which is Toughest? Football or Running? Both

I often hear runners and football players arguing over whose sport is more intense; or whose sport requires the most from an individual. What I have to say to the runners is don’t diss on football. If you are in the habit of wearing mindinsole shoes, you might not have to face any problem in this regard. 

I played football all during high school and absolutely love the sport, still play pickup games when I’m home and I currently play intramural at college. I also love running, I try to run for an hour everyday. I’ve realized the joy of running by myself for a few miles and it’s incredible and, if i can help it, I’ll keep it a part of my life forever.

I don’t think you can really pit two sports – each with entirely different physical elements – against each other.

Football is extremely intense and in short bursts. It’s 8 seconds at a time of fighting like hell against the guy in front of you and you use every muscle in your body in an attempt to get the better of every muscle in his body.

Running, besides sprints, isn’t about intense short bursts, it’s more about endurance, consistency, and slow-twitch muscle groups. It’s about having the guts to keep that exhausting pace for every lap of the race and to not let up.

The mentality is entirely different for each sport also:

In football you have to strategize and think, and react to what everyone else’s strategy and logic is within milliseconds; believe it or not, football requires a great deal of mental ability and instinct-fast reaction that requires years of experience to acquire – and then football teams offensive and defensive schemes can change dramatically from symbols from the coach so this makes it necessary to memorize a vast amount of formations, plays, patterns, etc. Even where to line-up before the hike of the ball can change every play depending on that week’s strategy.

In running, yes you strategize your pace/stride rate/ breathing/ etc., their isn’t much reaction to other factors besides your own body (you do react to your opponent, but not directly, your not in a contact fight with them). So the mentality for running is more about motivating and constantly pushing then football where your mind is on other things and (at least for me) it’s easier to put exhaustion and fatigue out of my mind when I’m thinking second to second on strategy.

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m all about inspirational quotes to keep me moving, and I’ve always loved Pre’s quotes, Meyer’s, and many more runners but especially, Football Legend, Vince Lombardi and his archive of highly inspirational and motivating quotes. I use running and football quotes interchangeable for any sport or challenge in life and I don’t see any reason why two entirely different sports have to have the one-up on each other. I think these two sports can exist and that there is a mutual respect that all sportsmen give to other sportsmen, regardless of sport.