In times of war...

Football players should be the first ones drafted.
Discuss.

Dassault Papillon: Then we would lose vital revenue on the homefront.

Blackflag: Football is of no real value to a nation at war.
Football players clearly meet every physical qualification for joining the army, and as for the killing part, most of them appear to be psychopaths anyway.

Dassault Papillon: They make $ and improve moral. A happy nation is a happy war.

Blackflag: But look at those football players! They're as close to Der Ubermensch as humanity gets! Maybe not in number of brain cells, but still...

Dassault Papillon: Except warfare is now thought with technology, diplomacy, and discipline. I can shoot a gun as well as Ray Rice can.

Blackflag: *fought

Blackflag: You can't run for cover as fast as he can. You can't throw a grenade as far as he can. You can't withstand as much pain as he can. He could probably keep fighting if shot once to the chest, whereas that would put you out of commission. If the battle turns to melee combat, he would win for sure. His arms would not grow tired from holding a gun before yours did. He would enter the military possessing the physical fitness and the discipline needed for combat. He would already know how to follow a play, and he would already know how to work with others to accomplish a plan. Plus, he would intimidate the other guy pretty well.

Dassault Papillon: We must first ask........ how much do we really need a draft at this point?
Ignore the fact that we have the most powerful military arsenal in the world, or the third largest organized army to ever be assembled, but why drafts are still actually a thing.
Not only are drafts a front to liberty, but solely singling out football players would be social discrimination.

Blackflag: You'd draft everyone else too...the football players would just be first.
It's the utilitarian thing to do, and a draft may be necessary if the United States were to engage in a war which is too much for its current level of manpower to win.

Dassault Papillon: I would love to hear what kind of conflict you have in mind

If you need to be drafted into a war in our country, it is likely a result of the war not being popular to begin with.

Blackflag: Americans were willing enough to fight in World War Two, though after that everyone stopped being as patriotic as they were before.

Dassault Papillon: The words "You're not being patriotic for your country" were spoken word for word to a Japanese Intellectual living in Hiroshima, 1945, after protesting his son's entry into the kamikaze's. Some people love their country enough to know war is not the way to maintain it.

Dassault Papillon: Refer to this debate: http://www.edeb8.com/debate/Gridiron+Football+is+better+than+Rugby+Football/

If it's a superior physical and mental specimen you're after, the USA would do far better dragging its Rugby players than the Gridiron ones.

If it sounds like I'm trying to goad someone to start a debate on this subject then you're probably right. I feel bad stealing the last one and I'm trying to give my fellow kiwis a crack as well.

nzlockie: * drafting

nzlockie: Eh, I don't think the United States has any rugby players. That's a British sport, is it not?

Dassault Papillon: Apparently they do.

Dassault Papillon: Sigh.
Oh America.

nzlockie: Bubba isn't exactly the best representation of most americans.