North America style football didn't used to allow the "forward pass" and much more of the play involved foot work, such as the "drop kick" and the running punt kick. In the first rules, only the " side pass" was allowed, as long as the two players were side by side, with no forward motion of the ball, similar to rugby rules. The Canadian Football League ( CFL ) still allows a drop kick to score a field goal, and also has a thing called a "rouge" when the kicker is able to kick the ball thru the end zone, so it lands out of play , it is worth 2 points. Both the NFL and the CFL still have the drop-kick available as a weapon - on the point-after-touchdown, or from the field for 3 points. The "rouge" is worth a single point here in Canada.
The above is a direct qoute from Wiki-answers, and seems to be the most reasonable explanation as to why the sport was named "football"
My theory... is that it's the same reason Greenland is called Greenland and Iceland is called Iceland, even though Greenland is covered in Ice and Iceland is very nice. The intent was to trick people into coming to Greenland because the Vikings needed more people to settle there when it was discovered, as opposed to the more popular "Iceland" with its mild climate.
In football, im sure as part of an initial ploy to create hype for the sport, why not play off of the worlds most internationally recognized game? Hence, we are now screwed into saying football (American) and football (soccer)