I am bored, so I'll start a thread with a stupid question, which I've been asking for years and haven't got a good answer: Why do they call American Football FOOT-BALL when they scarcely play it with feet (like soccer) and the thing they play with is not a ball?
The origins of "American Football" started as a soccer/rugby game. 1869 Rutgers and Princeton played a college soccer football game, the first ever, November 6. The game used modified London Football Association rules. During the next seven years, rugby gained favor with the major eastern schools over soccer, and modern football began to develop from rugby. http://www.profootballhof.com/index.cfm?section=history&cont_id=186541
Thanks, Bob. I knew it was developed from rugby. But nobody ever told me it had ties with soccer. Does that mean that "football" was made by combining soccer and rugby? I don't see any trace of soccer in football other than the kicking of field goal.
I can understand "foot soldiers" for they travel on their feet as opposed to with other means. But to call a sport foot-something, you'd expect it to have something to do with feet with the very essense of the sport other than just running on them. Too many sports require the use of feet.
OK. Here's the way it went:- Association Football (hence soccer) William Webb Ellis alleged picks up the soccer ball during a match at Rugby school in England, so... Rugby Football is born (later to split into Rugby Union and Rugby League). Rugby Football evolves into American Football. Here endeth the lesson.
It wasn't until the 1880s that a great rugby player from Yale, Walter Camp, pioneered rules changes that slowly transformed rugby into the new game of American Football.
An additional detail... In the beginning, punting was actually a huge part of the game. Teams often punted well before 4th down because the game was almost entirely about field position (teams rarely scored). So, football was a more apt name. As the game developed, obviously, the foot aspects were marginalized.
well... it depends. if you're referring to the foot soldiers in tmnt, then yes... they sometimes fight with their feet.
I would think calling it "American Rugby" would have made more sense because it went farther away from soccer (football) than rugby. Interestingly, the Aussies call their version Australian Rule Football, which looks more like rugby than football to me. Anyway, thank y'all for the history lessons.
Because America knows that soccer sucks and is due no consideration, thus we don't care that Euros call succor football.
why is knob spelled with a "k"...or knock? that's so freaking stupid. haven't we evolved far enough now to get rid of superflous letters like this!!?? dum, dum, dum (yes! i omitted the freaking silent "b" from dumb!)
Sometimes I do feel like we need some villains in this place to stir things up... what a boring day today...
Why do they call it "putting your foot in your mouth?" Besides the fact that it is impossible for the majority of us, what does that have to do with saying something stupid or thoughtless?
