TheFirstRabbitoh said:
Gridiron is traditionally played over winter (and you thought the armour was just for the hits) - but basically every other football code (union, league, gaelic, AFL, even soccer) generally plays in summer.
Playing outdoor field games in Canada or the top half of the US in winter aint such a great idea.
Just to clarify, "gridiron" was always a fall sport, September to December, but the NFL season has extended several times so it now goes into late January. The Super Bowl is always played in a warm southern city (or very rarely a northern city with a domed stadium). The Canadian football season goes from June to November, and the games in November aare quite often played in cold weather.
I think the point about why hasn't rugby union started a professional comp in North America is a good one. There is talk of it, but it remains to be seen if it can get off the ground. The US has a men's soccer league, but it loses money, and the women's soccer league just folded despite the popularity of the US women's national soccer team. So a Rugby Union league (I know that sounds confusing, but that's what a Yank would call it) is a long shot, and a Rugby League league would be even more difficult to sell. Adding to the difficulty would be the fact that most Yanks don't know the difference between the 2 codes, or even that there
are 2 codes. It would really confuse fans if both tried to start competitions at the same time.
I do think that, even though Union has a much broader grass roots in the US, League would be more suited to American tastes if you could ever get them to sample it. But that's a big if.