The Cardinals have practiced this week at the London Irish Rugby Football Club in London, and Thursday, the team just so happened to be practicing right before the Cards took the field themselves on one of the further fields. It became a popular topic, the idea of essentially playing football without pads.

"I played sandlot football growing up a lot, but we were 80 pounds back then," safety Tyrann Mathieu said with a smile. "I can't imagine somebody 240 (pounds) hitting me without any pads on. I'm pretty sure I'd be on IR."

Larry Fitzgerald has seen rugby matches during his world travels. He's also watched a lot of Australian Rules Football, a similar game, because former teammate and Cardinals punter Ben Graham is the general manager of a team in his country and Fitzgerald has gone to watch those practices too. Fitz said the padless game of rugby actually provides something from which NFL players should learn.

"Those guys have much better technique than we have," Fitzgerald said. "You see them tackle, they tackle proper — heads up, wrap and run. They have less issues than we do. We could learn a thing or two from the way they play."