Why do Americans call it football?

I like American football a lot but i have always wondered why a game that is primarily played with the hands is called FOOTball, any special reasons?

Don't question us.

Originally posted by ultimatethor
I like American football a lot but i have always wondered why a game that is primarily played with the hands is called FOOTball, any special reasons?

"HandBall" was already taken! 😄

Well there are kickoffs and field goals.....No real reason though...

It's called football because american football is based off rugby football, and in the end, instead of calling it american football, they shortened it to football.

The real question should be, Why is SOCCER refer to as Football? Mostly non american refer to Soccer as Football or is it Futbol?

American football will be called football forever. The NFL has more power than a lot of countries in this world, so it will never be changed.

It doesn;t have more power than the football playing federation! FIFA is on a scale that the NFL can only dream of.

There is no particular mystery as to why soccer is mostly called football, seeing how it is played. Out of all the 'football' group of sports, it gets to be called 'football' by the majority of the world as it is by far and away the most popular.

Another question i wanted to ask was why do the winners of the nfl, nba, and mlb all call themselves world champions when these leagues are made up of only teams from american cities( and sometimes canadian cities)? Shouldnt US champions or something be much more appropriate?

The fact is, it was called football first, and American football began its life in England as an offshoot of rugby.

It's called football, not soccer.

-AC

Originally posted by Darth Vicious
The real question should be, Why is SOCCER refer to as Football? Mostly non american refer to Soccer as Football or is it Futbol?

It's association football, which shortens to soccer.
It's stupid though, it's football.

Originally posted by Ushgarak
It doesn;t have more power than the football playing federation! FIFA is on a scale that the NFL can only dream of.

Terrific. I said countries, not sports organizations. And right now I think the billion-dollar NFL has more power than Burkina Faso.

so do i...

Originally posted by ultimatethor
Another question i wanted to ask was why do the winners of the nfl, nba, and mlb all call themselves world champions when these leagues are made up of only teams from american cities( and sometimes canadian cities)? Shouldnt US champions or something be much more appropriate?

Why MLB and the NBA do it, I have no idea. I think it's proven that the US clearly does not have the dominance in those sports that it used to have. The NFL, on the other hand, well, that makes perfect sense...even if the Barcelona Dragons had anything to say about it. 😄

Theres a lot of odd phrases which have evolved in various languages.
Look at cricket, they never have proper games but always have "tests", you´d have thought they´d have had enough of testing and want to play a proper game.

But people should call their sport whatever they want, as long as everyones happy who cares.

As far as NFL is concerned what amazes me most is that people actually enjoy watching it, they yanks probably say the same about footy.

Look at cricket, they never have proper games but always have "tests", you´d have thought they´d have had enough of testing and want to play a proper game.

Originally posted by botankus
Terrific. I said countries, not sports organizations. And right now I think the billion-dollar NFL has more power than Burkina Faso.

And my point stands identically; FIFA is more powerful still. In the context of what you said that was entirely relevant. If you ar saying that the reason the name would never be changed (not that anyone was saying it was) is because of the power of the NFL, that is in error as football (soccer) is more powerful in that respect.

FIFA is probably the most powerful sporting entity in the world... In fact, I can't imagine there's much 'probably' involved.

Originally posted by ultimatethor
Another question i wanted to ask was why do the winners of the nfl, nba, and mlb all call themselves world champions when these leagues are made up of only teams from american cities( and sometimes canadian cities)? Shouldnt US champions or something be much more appropriate?

Originally posted by ultimatethor
I like American football a lot but i have always wondered why a game that is primarily played with the hands is called FOOTball, any special reasons?

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