why is the game called football?

Question

why is the game called football when most of the time the ball is being thrown not kicked with your foot. Also why do you call soccer, soccer, outside of the USA it is known as football and as in this game the ball is being kicked with your foot and not thrown is football not the best name for the game instead of soccer.

Answer 1

because you stole the name from the english meaning of football. where you dont run around hugging a ball. americans just basically changed rugby a bit and called it football

charlie m u are exactly right!!

thank you for backing up my point!!

Answer 2

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)

Answer 3

The term football originated in the Middle Ages. Soccer, american football, and rugby all originated from the same sport that poor people played, something close to soccer. It was called football because it was played on foot, and not on horseback like the rich people would play. It doesnt mean the feet have to touch the ball. The term soccer was coined by the British as a short name for Association Football. Now pretty much only the USA and Canada call it soccer.

Answer 4

Here is the real answer.



Back when football was first invented, the objective of the game was to get the ball close enough to the field goal to which your kicker was able to kick it in



the whole touchdown thing did not come until later.



true story

Answer 5

Because the Americans are very unoriginal.

What you'd call 'soccer' is what the English call football - you just took our word for a popular sport...



Another example of unoriginality:

I live in York, know a place name similar to that in America?



Etc...

Answer 6

Because we Americans tried to take another thing you idiots made and tried to make it better. Just like York, as the other guy said...



Watch fairies run around for 90 minutes, flopping all over the ground like they're dying, or an NFL game?



Live in York, or Live in New York, where most of Euro's come anyway?



HMMMMM

Answer 7

Because the ball is a foot long. 12 inches

Answer 8

Because the best games are usually decided by a field goal.

Answer 9

Because it resembles the Shape of a foot?

Answer 10

Why is baseball called baseball? You don't hit the ball with a base do you? Why do they call cricket, cricket? Do they play with insects?? It's just a name, big deal

Answer 11

because the game always starts out with the kicker, kicking it to the opposing team.

Answer 12

it is called as football beco ppl use foot to play this game think it logically u will get the answer.