• saltesc@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Most of the world calls it football because feet and ball. American football is usually referred to as commercials or ads.

    • tomi000@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      It seems so stupid to me that Americans took over the name football for a sport thats not even mainly played by foot, and then pretend like thats the sport that naturally belongs to the name. Like wtf.

      • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        See? Here we go.

        Soccer - Uses both feet. Should be called feetball.

        NFL - Only uses one foot to touch the ball. During punts or feildgoals. Accurately named football.

  • fun_times@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Football is a sport played all over the world. American Football is only played in the USA and Canada.

    Sorry, Americans, but you lost this battle ages ago. Just let it go.

    • adam_y@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Run it by me again… You carry the ball in your hands and run forwards? You occasionally throw it, again using your hands?

      What do you call it?

      Football.

    • Holytimes@sh.itjust.works
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      2 months ago

      Funfact soccer is a British word not an American one. The British popularized it.

      The same thing happened with aluminum. The current American way of saying it is actually the original British wah. Since they made it.

      The British changed and America just stuck to the original way the British wanted everyone to say it.

      So again it’s not America who’s wrong, it’s the British being stupid telling people what to do. Then getting mad when they do it.

      • fun_times@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Fun fact: Freedom fries is an American phrase, so Americans are being stupid when calling them French fries!

    • Bluewing@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      American football is gaining popularity in Europe and South America at a pretty healthy clip. Enough so that the NFL is now sending teams to play games in those places. They are even starting to consider expanding a couple of teams to Europe in the future. And there are more and more international players starting to get a foothold in the NFL as players.

      You might have won a battle, but you could lose still lose the war…

      • TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        There is a lot of interest among Europeans to watch American football, but there isn’t really anyone playing it here. I think it’s because American football has more complicated rules than rugby 😂

        • Bluewing@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          There have been a few European players in the NFL. The team I follow, the Minnesota Vikings, have had a number of international players at least tryout for the team. We’ve had a German wide receiver on the roster for 2 years, a player from Africa, (I can’t remember the country right now), and a couple Aussie and New Zealand kickers. In fact, we will have a punter from Australia this year trying to make the team. And there have been a few Polynesians in the NFL over the years also.

          So, American football does have enough worldwide players to draw at least few players. Though almost all attend collage in the US to gain better skills and attention. I wonder if the reason more Europeans don’t gain much attention from the NFL is because you generally aren’t big enough, (don’t feel bad 90% of the world isn’t). There is almost a genetic lottery you need to win at birth to even have a start at being good enough.

  • ParadoxSeahorse@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Can we just call it all football!?

    • Ruggers Football
    • Assoccers Football
    • Gridders Football
    • Basketters Netball
    • Softy Rounders Ball
    • Crickers Baseman’s Ball

    And let’s have mixed teams

  • Skullgrid@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Reference to it with proximity to yanks :

    You are the only non yank there : Soccer
    There are 60% yanks : Association football
    There are 30% or less yanks : football
    There are 0% yanks, and 100% Brits that actually like this boring sport : Footy

  • WanderWisley@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Oi! When I finish this pint after watching old top gear on Dave I’m gonna give you what for you America cunt!

  • merc@sh.itjust.works
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    2 months ago

    Ever wondered why it sounds like “sock” but is spelled “soccer”? It’s because the British school kids who came up with the name were shortening the word “association”. The kind of football that came out of the Rugby School was Rugby Football, and the kind that was managed by The Football Association was Association Football.

    Rugby Football became “rugger”, Association Football became “assoccer” and eventually “soccer”.

    Both kinds of football migrated across the Atlantic. The first game played in Toronto was played in 1859, 4 years before the formation of the British Football Association, and the first official Association Football rules. In the USA, “soccer” wasn’t officially used for association football until the 1920s. Before that, every regulating association used “football” or “foot ball”. Gridiron football obviously comes from Rugby’s rules. And, until 1955 the governing body overseeing what eventually became Canada’s gridiron football was called the Canadian Rugby Union, long after the rules completely diverged from the “Rugby Football” rules.

    Eventually, both sides of the Atlantic dropped the qualifiers for what is now called simply “football”. “Rugby football” became “Rugby” basically everywhere. “Association Football” became “Football” in the UK and places where it was the most popular football game, and North America adopted the British slang term “Soccer”. The modified version of Rugby Football that used a grid of lines on the field became “Football” in North America, and didn’t really get another name elsewhere because it wasn’t played anywhere else. Meanwhile, Australia did their typical thing and called their Australian Rules Football game “Footie” and use the British term “soccer” for the Association rules.

    Other interesting tidbits:

    • Why does American Football sometimes get called “Gridiron” football? Why grid? Why iron? A gridiron is a surface for cooking over a fire, more often called a “grill” today. The term “grid” comes from a gridiron, which is also related to a griddle. Iron doesn’t actually mean “iron”, it just comes from association with the metal in the word “griderne” which led to gridiron. So, although parallel lines aren’t a “grid” in modern language, they look like a grill, which used to be called a “gridiron”
    • “Soccer” is still occasionally used in England, like in the TV show Soccer Saturday
    • The name “Football” may not come from hitting the ball with a foot. One possible source of the name comes from the game being played on foot. There were early “foot ball” games where it was illegal to kick the ball. This would make sense because the first people to write down the rules for these games were teachers and students at English “Public Schools” (which are the most elite forms of what most of the world would call a private school). They were distinguishing it from ball games played on horseback. But this isn’t necessarily clear because the terms “football” “handball” and “hockey” were used as early as 1363.
  • yermaw@sh.itjust.works
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    2 months ago

    Thats the same face I make when you call them “crossing guards” instead of “lollipop ladies”

  • DigDoug@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Americans when you point out that the word “football” doesn’t exclusively refer to gridiron.