Why is Football called Football(NFL)

Ive been wondering for a long time, I mean why is it that a game where u throw the ball and barely have contact with your feet with the ball is it called FOOTBALL.

Worst part is REAL football gets labelled as Soccer.....

Just wanna know if anybody really gets this drift of calling Football - Football.....plus whose the dude that started off Football in the first place?

You see...America is made up of tons of idiots..

Becuase NFL is a real game.. soccer is just for pussies (oh baby watch the flames now )
But almost every country has a different version of "football". hell here in australia "football" varies from state to state. In queensland and new south wales, rugby league is football, but in victoria and south australia aussie rules is known as football, then there is traditional rugby, which is also known as football here.

I think football is such a widely used term, and it rolls off the toungue much better than gridiron, so who can blame the americans considering how popular the game is there to call it football.. i know i would.

In Australia from New Years day soccer will now be known as football, so looks like there will be 3 versions of football in Australia now

Soccer in australia is a joke, so it's not like it matters

You see...America is made up of tons of idiots..

damn, you beat me to it..

You see...America is made up of tons of idiots..

word

This is actually a very good topic.

Here are two general perceptions, there run rather well with eachother:

The official name of the sport is associative football. The international governing body that I mentioned above is referred to as FIFA, from the French "Federation Internationale de Football Associatif" (International Federation of Associative Football). It seems that at some point, "associative football" was abbreviated as "assoc," from which we somehow got the American version "soccer."

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We have to thank the students of the 1880s for the word "soccer". It seems it was the practice amonst the well bred students of Oxford to abbreviate words whilst adding "er" to the end; "brekkers" for breakfast for example.

One asked if he wanted to play "rugger" (i.e. the "rugby rules") a student replied "no, soccer", an abbreviation of "association", or the "association rules", i.e. the rules of the Football Association in London. As'soc'iation!

"Footer" was also used, which is where the term football came from and is now widely used in the UK. (alot of people see the word 'soccer' as american, when really it was used before 'football')

The British are the people who really embraced the sport. At the time, the game was played with a round ball and only feet were used. Then, in the 1800s (I think, it might have been earlier) a school in England (or thereabouts) named Rugby changed the rules and started carrying the ball and running with it. This split the sport into two games that they called Rugby Football and Association Football. The word Soccer is derived from the word "asSOCiation". When the game migrated to the US, the Rugby version became the more popular sport. People started playing it in college, sort of like an intramural sport. Then, some colleges wanted to play each other. When they got together they realized that they all had slightly different rules. So the officials sat down to write down rules everyone could agree on. Thus, our Gridiron Football was evolved! From Football (or Soccer) -> Rugby -> Gridiron. You can say that Soccer is Gridiron's grandpa!

You see...America is made up of tons of idiots..

word

Man fuck yall.

Anyway, as Andreas's second answer pointed out, it came from a moron picking up a soccer ball and running it into the soccer goal.

Ohh, you see: it's not because USA is full of idiots, it's because of an idiot came up with the game....

I don't think it actually was a moron not understanding the game of football, but just some people that got bored with the regular rules of football... Meh, who could blame them?
I live in Sweden and football is the largest sport by far; plus I used to play it for a few years ago, and I still find it dull.

Ohh, you see: it's not because USA is full of idiots, it's because of an idiot came up with the game....

I don't think it actually was a moron not understanding the game of football, but just some people that got bored with the regular rules of football... Meh, who could blame them?
I live in Sweden and football is the largest sport by far; plus I used to play it for a few years ago, and I still find it dull.

Gotcha.

Well I prefer for "football" to be called soccer because our "football" has no other name. Soccer has 2 names and when someone says "football" I always think directly to NFL American football.

Hehe, I'll be the first (and probably the only one) to flame...

Becuase NFL is a real game.. soccer is just for pussies

You've never played soccer, right?

(Not a flame but, who cares?)

Actually I played it quite a bit. But when theatrical skills can be more important than athletic skills in a game, i lose all respect for it.

Then you have all this shit how it's the "beuatiful game" and such. Soccer is the most boring game. It's just a joke, plain and simple.

Actually I played it quite a bit. But when theatrical skills can be more important than athletic skills in a game, i lose all respect for it.

Then you have all this shit how it's the "beuatiful game" and such. Soccer is the most boring game. It's just a joke, plain and simple.

Agreed. I don't know how you could enjoy a soccer game that ends in a 0-0 tie. Boooring.

I guess I can understand how it might be fun to play. But why in the world would you want to watch it? if you shrunk the field in half and added fire or something, then i'd watch.

Well I prefer for "football" to be called soccer because our "football" has no other name

Actually, the rest of the World tend to call it "gridiron".

Well I prefer for "football" to be called soccer because our "football" has no other name

Actually, the rest of the World tend to call it "gridiron".

I've heard it called "gridiron" but it sounds kinda stupid. "Hey, the gridiron game is on tonight!" or "hey, are you gonna watch Monday Night Gridiron?"

Yeah I don't really like the name either. I think it works for the respective countries though, I mean in Australia rugby league/union/AFL are more popular than soccer so we don't have to worry about any confusion with the names.

You see...America is made up of tons of idiots..

word

Man fuck yall.

Anyway, as Andreas's second answer pointed out, it came from a moron picking up a soccer ball and running it into the soccer goal.

They're right. This country is just a bunch of fat, worthless idiots. Who else whould elect Bush for 8 years in a row?

Hehe Eminem called it the "Divided States of Embarassment"... not saying I agree, just thought it was clever.

Eminem also fantasises in his raps about killing his mother and the mother of his daughter, so it's not like he has the greatest logic in the world.

Lol spoken like a true patriot.

not saying I agree

Jae I wasnt having a go at you man... I just hate eminem more than soccer

I haven't heard that word gridiron before.
Here we just call it American Football. (Why don't Americans call it that? Patriotism and so forth...)


Football is a lot more fun to play than to watch, it's like that with almost every sport, but that difference can be seen easily in football.
The only time I can bear myself to watching it is when Sweden is playing, and then it can actually be quite entertaining to watch.

Jae I wasnt having a go at you man... I just hate eminem more than soccer

Lol would you even go as far as to say Eminem's... gay?

Actually that's kinda interesting... do you hate soccer more than gays? I mean, soccer could be a respectable sport if it wasn't for all of the fairies running around pretending to get hurt.