The Weird Attempt to Combine American & Australian Football

Austus Newsreel:    • AUSTUS   Austus rulebook sent to America: https://graham64.wordpress.com/wp-con... What do you get when you take American soldiers and place them on the world’s most sporting continent? Well, a lot of drinking and a lot of fights for starters. But eventually, you would also get an attempt to combine what would eventually become each country’s national pastime into a single sport everyone could play. This was Austus. A combination of Australian Rules Football and American football that created a buzz for a hot minute during World War II. Honestly, combination is a bit of an overstatement. It was mostly Aussie rules rules with some American tweaks mixed in. In reality, the creation of Austus was less about creating a new sport than it was trying to settle a pointless argument: is it better to throw or kick a ball? These days the AFL and NFL have become Australia's and America's national pastimes. But once upon a time, well they almost merged into a single sport. This the story of Austus. About The Touchback #takeitouttothe25 The Touchback is the world’s best sports and culture website…or something like that. You’ll either really like it or really hate it. But it’s worth reading either way.