Does any one else have been thoughts about in American it is called 🏈 Football ; you actually having players just ram into them?

[starfoxxy64]

I am all football ⚽ which I make fun about how people in America call football = 🏈 yet I always question it should be called Handball since players are using their hands to pass the ball to each other and only use their foot in " 🏈 " when the need to do a kick off and also the goal post. and how Football with the soccer balls should be called Football since mostly you using your feet to move and passing the "⚽" to other teammates you know what I mean.

[abc3643]

Actually, we call football "football" because it's football... technically, "gridiron football".

Your "football" is called "association football". This is why FIFA is "Fédération internationale de Football Association" which, translated into English is "Internation Federation of Association Football"

So, why do we in North America and in many other nations call it "soccer". That's easy to understand... Association football was invented by the English and was called "association football" to distinguish it from "gridiron football" which was an off-shoot of the well-established "rugby football". So, in the UK, instead of saying "rugby football" and "association football", people in England started calling association football as "soccer"; look: asSOCiation. However, with the waning of other footballs in the UK, the term "soccer" waned and just became "football" because, of all the variants of "football", it was the only one that remained relevant.

That said, in North America, "association football" retained the original English nickname for the sport, "soccer". Soccer was never popular in North America compared to gridiron football. And, since association football was always known as "soccer", it wasn't thought of as football. Thus, in North America, the "gridiron" in gridiron football was dropped because it was unnecessary and just became "football".

Keep in mind that there __ARE__ two sports known as "handball".
In North America, there is a popular amateur sport called handball in which you simply used your hand like a paddle and slap a hollow rubber ball against a wall, and then the opponent needs to do the same thing. It's like racquetball, but the racquets are the palms of your hands.
The other handball is a wonderful team sport that is popular in Europe. In North America, we call that 'team handball" to differentiate it from the handball I described earlier.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xweAuXWgXA

Back to "football" and why "gridiron football" was called "football" at all... That's because feet actually are important in gridiron football. Like in rugby, kicking the football is common and it used to be more common when drop kicks were permitted as a way to score (like in rugby). Now, "the kicking game" - an aspect of football and football strategy - consists of:
1. Kick-off where the ball is kicked from a tee toward the other team. Sometimes, there's an "on-sides kick" which is a desperate move to keep the ball.
2. "punting" the ball which is drop-kicking it to the other team.
3. "field goals" in which the ball is kicked between uprights giving 3 points if successful
4. the "point after touchdown" which is a special field goal attempt always from the same location and after a touchdown has been scored.

With all of these places involving feet and that, classically, like rugby, football involved running with the ball, "football" was a justifiable name.

[xColinx]

smashball would be more accurate. not sure where 'football' came from, other than stealing it from international 'soccer'.

[starfoxxy64]

I actually was trying to come up with another term for American 🏈 Football into "SmashBall " also sounds right.

[pewter_moon]

I agree with you. Every country has it’s oddities. Not sure how this one became so popular. It’s boring. Look. They are stopping again!

[going-to-ibiza]

Yeah, if you’re not American thats really weird😂
You remember the old episodes of Friends?
They always talk about their „foosball table“…

[KostasKouvalis]

There's already a sport called "handball". I don't know where "football" came from though. I think it should be called "Tackle Ball"