[Beren]

Soccer is also a type of football.

Yeah, the most popular one worldwide, which has its own Olympics actually. So why not call it just football? Everybody calls it football except for the Anglo-sphere.

[Demosthenes]

Though I naturally agree with the Americans on this one, and have fought this battle several times, Oxy you are still a shameless troll.

US football is a game of strength and quickness. A sprint.
Soccer (UK football, world football, whatevz) is a game of endurance and bursts of speed. A marathon.

Few American football players could play professional (world) football except for perhaps some of the Wide Receivers or Defensive Backs.

Few world players could play any positions in the NFL except as kickers, or maybe... and this is a very, very big maybe due to their never having used their hands before, as Wide Receivers or Defensive Backs.

Rugby players truly are badasses, and anyone saying otherwise is bullshitting, but if anyone thinks US football players aren't the strongest Athletes in any modern team sport they are out of their minds. Rugby is still a marathon game, and while those men are clearly tough as nails they do not suffer impacts from men 100 pounds heavier than they are at speeds nearing 15 mph or greater.

You don't need to be some uber-guru to understand this either. A simple measure of the size of your average athlete in any of the given sports tells the story here. (For US Football you kind of have to vary it by position to be accurate, separating linemen from linebackers and running backs/tight ends, and defensive backs and wide receivers from both of those groups. Specialists like QBS, kickers, and punters, don't translate well to the other sports that simply lack special positions).

American football players do not have the endurance to play Rugby though NFL running backs, Linebackers, and possible Receivers and Defensive Backs could likely be trained to play it. I'm not sure about training Rugby players for offensive positions in the US game, again because of the hands aspect, but they could certainly be trained to play any defensive position save as Linemen, as well as kickers or punters.

Anyway, I hate this fight. It's two totally different sports (or three, actually) and each specializes in its own thing that none of the others can really pull off.

Damn shit starting J00z!

[The Immortal Goon]

TIG wrote:
Soccer is also a type of football.

Yeah, the most popular one worldwide, which has its own Olympics actually. So why not call it just football? Everybody calls it football except for the Anglo-sphere.

In the us they call a tissue a Kleenex. In the uk they call a vaccum a Hoover. Both are specific kinds of said items. Do I care that people do that?

No.

But it happens. I'm not being mean, and I'm sorry if stating a general truth has butt-hurt the jingoists though.

[Beren]

But it happens. I'm not being mean, and I'm sorry if stating a general truth has butt-hurt the jingoists though.

No, you're not mean, you're just an Irish American. And if there is a jingoist here, then it's you.

[Cartertonian]

Particularly the League version...

One of my boys is the serious Rugby player of the house (I'm too old). He plays Union in the Winter season and League in the Summer season.

[Otebo]

Oh no! Don't call me names! That totally invalidates the provided neutral sources and citation for the correct English language terminology!

The world's oldest club, Sheffield F.C., was founded in 1857. F.C. of course stands for 'Football Club'. The English game's governing body, the Football Association, was founded in 1863.

Yes, soccer is a colloquial name for it. Yes, other sports can use the term 'football'. However you are completely wrong to claim that game should 'properly be called, "soccer:"'. Association Football was first codified by the Football Association, it's first clubs used Football Club in their names, it is now governed internationally by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association, the Laws of the Game are determined by the International Football Association Board, and those official Laws only make reference to 'football', never to soccer.

Soccer is used to refer to other games involving kicking a ball (such as 'beach soccer') and is a colloquial name for the modern game. It is not the 'proper' name though and is not used formally.

Therefore you are wrong.

And you are still a Plastic Paddy.

[Cartertonian]

It's still a game played by metrosexual, narcissistic pansies, though...

[Otebo]

'Football is a gentleman's game played by hooligans, and rugby is a hooligans' game played by gentlemen.'

I fear the behaviour of our chaps at this year's World Cup has brought the validity of that saying into question.

[Cartertonian]

I prefer, Rugby League is a gentleman's game played by hooligans, and Rugby Union is a hooligans' game played by gentlemen.

[Brio]

This shit again?

From my perspective, ice hockey is better sports than both. Doesn't mean I can't enjoy both sports for what they are, and some stupid name isn't going to change that.

[The Immortal Goon]

However you are completely wrong to claim that game should 'properly be called, "soccer:"'.

I didn't claim this. The articles I posted from neutral sources did.

No, you're not mean, you're just an Irish American. And if there is a jingoist here, then it's you.

What have I said to glorify Ireland or the United States here? Nothing. I posted an article from a credible German magazine, a credible English source, and various other sources that says that football is the general and soccer is the specific. Nobody has done anything to counter this aside from name-calling. I really have no idea why you people are so sensitive about it, but it's hilarious.

If somebody told me that a clock was actually called a "chronometer" in the proper form, I would shrug and say, "whatever." I wouldn't freak the fuck out, start accusing that person of having nefarious purposes, and cry myself to sleep that night.

But I think that it's funny people do.

[Decky]

Particularly the League version...

I thought I was the only one here.

Who do you support?

[Beren]

What have I said to glorify Ireland or the United States here? Nothing.

You're a jingoist in general and your participation in this thread is due to jingoism actually. Soccer is the name of European football and you Americans don't want European football to be called football, because it's your favourite circus game you want to call football. And you TIG personally dislike soccer, so perhaps you just like kidding those who like it - the British for example.

I really have no idea why you people are so sensitive about it, but it's hilarious.

I'm not so sensitive about it, I call it soccer myself when I speak or write in English. The hilarious thing is as you're trying to cover the real reasons of your participation in this thread. Although you're pretending it, I don't believe you're being here because of semantic issues, you're being here to demand the trade-name.

[The Immortal Goon]

You're a jingoist in general and your participation in this thread is due to jingoism actually.

To the Germans? They're my primary source in this. Or did I somehow trick Der Spiegel?

I don't care if American football is called football, or gridiron. I've called in both depending on the context. I don't care at all. Same with a Hoover or a Kleenex or anything else. But I know that a Kleenex is a slang term for a tissue. If somebody points that out to me I don't go freaking out and calling people names.

[Beren]

To the Germans? They're my primary source in this. Or did I somehow trick Der Spiegel?

You didn't trick Der Spiegel, you just used it in order to back up the OP actually.

I don't care if American football is called football, or gridiron.

If you call it gridiron, then you actually call it football, it's just an abbreviation of gridiron football.

Gridiron football (or simply football), sometimes known as Northern American football, is an umbrella term for related codes of football primarily played in the United States and Canada.

It's the same as if you called soccer association, since its official name is association football.

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball. At the turn of the 21st century, the game was played by over 250 million players in over 200 countries, making it the world's most popular sport.

And here is the point: which one is football? Is it gridiron football or soccer? It's gridiron football of course, since there is "football" in its name, while there is no "football" in soccer, so soccer is just soccer, not football.

Anyway, I think gridiron football will be called gridiron in the future and soccer will be called football, because it's going to stay the way more popular kind of football all around the world except for the US and Canada, so the 96% of the world (or even more) will call it football. And if North Americans want to have a talk about American football with the rest of the world, then they will have to mention it as gridiron (or American football), otherwise the whole world will believe they are talking about soccer. As a matter of fact this is the situation even by now.

[The Immortal Goon]

And here is the point: which one is football?

As has been pointed out repeatedly, they both are football as neither is played on horseback. The original and still correct naming - by the British no less - is that the football played in the UK is "soccer."

If somebody points out the Kleenex or Hoover thing people don't freak the fuck out and desperately cling to ad-hom attacks in an attempt to avoid the issue. I can prove that a Kleenex is a tissue, a Hoover is a vacuum, and football is soccer.

That's what I think is interesting. I imagine the emotion attached to it is unique in sports, but I wouldn't be surprised if there was a bit of the old Degeneracy Thesis built into the debate.

[Otebo]

The original and still correct naming - by the British no less - is that the football played in the UK is "soccer."

If 'soccer' is derived from 'Association Football', it was clearly called football first and football is the official name. The original and correct naming is football.

[The Immortal Goon]

As has been pointed out repeatedly, they both are football as neither is played on horseback.

[Demosthenes]

What's cool about this explanation, as an aside, is now I can give it back to the snooty snoots when they say that stupid thing about American football being called "hand egg"

It's not named football because you use your foot limey! It's called football because you don't play it mounted...kinda like foot soldiers!

Still a troll thread though.

[Smertios]

Seriously, what does it matter? American football is boring to watch and the "action" stops every time the ball falls. That is one of the reason people don't like it very much outside the US.

But the fact remains that it is a type of football. Historically, both Association Football and Rugby Football have the same English roots. And American/Canadian/Gridiron Football comes from the same root as well. And all of that go back to Medieval Football (also called Mob Football), which itself originated from the Roman sport called Harpastum. And even that was imported from Ancient Greece:


Even handball has its origins in that traditional European football, so one could easily call handball a variety of football as well.

So seriously, what does it matter? There are multiple varieties that come from the same root, so they have the same name. It doesn't matter if you are talking Association, Rugby, Gridiron, Gaelic, Aussie Rules, Beach, Indoor, Outdoor, wheelchair etc. Those are all different forms of football...