Favre's streak vs Ripken's streak

Flag Guy · 12-10-2007, 10:09 PM

By the way ISUfan22 I love the avatar

And the "I state" christmas tree topper is a nice touch!

Sousaclone · 12-10-2007, 10:22 PM

Like someone said earlier, it's like comparing apples to oranges. They are both incredible streaks. From a daily grind standpoint, it's clearly Ripken. Baseball plays day in and day out. However it's not nearly as physical as football, yeah getting spiked, getting beaned, colliding with the catcher, etc are not pleasant events but if compare the number of times that happens to the number of times a QB gets hit per game the roughness factor goes to Favre.

Then of course there is the question which one has a greater impact on his team by not being in the game?

superfan · 12-10-2007, 10:32 PM

Originally Posted by Steve

So are you trying to say that it would be better to be hit by a 1/4 oz bullet fired at 1000 mph from a hunting rifle? I don't think so.

Also guys can catch a softball line drive barehanded. 95 mph baseball break hands. No comparison between the two.

There are probably 6 or more collisions between guys who average 260 lbs on every football play. Very few result in an injury that sidelines a guy for the next contest. Getting hit by a baseball is certainly more rare, but the results are more traumatic.

From a momentum standpoint, yes, it is better to get hit by the bullet. From a kinetic energy standpoint, however, the bullet is going to be much more damaging since the energy is proportional to the velocity squared. However, the analogy holds up for energy, as well.

E = 0.5*m*v^2:

Baseball: E = 0.5*1*(95)^2 = 4512.5 (lb*miles^2)/hr^2
Lineman: E = 0.5*315*(10)^2 = 15,750 (lb*miles^2)/hr^2

I'm biased, but I've gotta go with Favre. I don't know Cal's injury history, but remember Favre played the better part of a season with a broken thumb on his throwing hand.

Steve · 12-11-2007, 12:40 AM

Originally Posted by superfan

From a momentum standpoint, yes, it is better to get hit by the bullet. From a kinetic energy standpoint, however, the bullet is going to be much more damaging since the energy is proportional to the velocity squared. However, the analogy holds up for energy, as well.

E = 0.5*m*v^2:

Baseball: E = 0.5*1*(95)^2 = 4512.5 (lb*miles^2)/hr^2
Lineman: E = 0.5*315*(10)^2 = 15,750 (lb*miles^2)/hr^2

I'm biased, but I've gotta go with Favre. I don't know Cal's injury history, but remember Favre played the better part of a season with a broken thumb on his throwing hand.

Good point about the velocity squared factor. It's why hs guys facing 75 are encouraged to "take one for the team" while pros facing 95 know that they better try to get out of the way. Nearly twice the energy to be absorbed at impact.

This leads to another point. While some incidents of HBP can be a glancing blow, many are direct impacts where the batter absorbs all of the kinetic energy in the ball. I really believe that it's a different situation when hitting the QB. Despite being encouraged to "accelerate through the tackle", the opposite usually occurs. The defender anticipates contact, braces for it, and actually ends up decelerating at the moment of contact.

There are other issues that diminish the effect of the collision in both cases. One is that an official baseball is between 5 and 5 1/4 oz rather than 1 lb. At the same time, there are not many 315 lbers that actually get to the QB. Most pass rushers are LBs or DEs in the 220 - 270 lb range. In addition, often a good portion of this mass does not impact the QB. Most tackles involve the defender supporting a portion of his own weight in a type of controlled fall. In many cases a OL is still hanging on to the defender and trying to impede his progress.

There are a whole host of kinesiology factors related to body movements that reduce the impact of the collision. QBs routinely bounce back up from a tackle from a 250 lb defender. You would have to pick up the pieces if they were hit with a 250 lb steel ball traveling the same speed.

It certainly wouldn't be fun to be the target of either a NFL tackler or an errant fast ball from someone like CC Sabathia. My choice would be to don pads and take on the hit, but others may certainly choose the other option.

Flag Guy · 12-11-2007, 01:10 AM

We should have Dr. Atwood assign this problem to his physics class next semester...

cyclonenum1 · 12-11-2007, 08:25 AM

Originally Posted by Iastfan112

your discounting a very important additional thing in addition to how many times farve is sacked, how many times he's hit after he's thrown the ball, which I'm willing to bet is a lot more. Farve is a smart guy, he'll throw the ball rather than take a sack(in some cases make a stupid throw) but he gets hit all the time after he's thrown. In additon you have the couple of times he runs the ball a game

Your first point is a great exaggeration...all the time?

With respect to your second point...he rarely runs and when he does it is typically finished by going out of bounds or sliding to avoid contact.