Why do people in the USA call the game football, when the "foot" is rarely used ?

Question

American Football is a great game, but why call it football when no foot is used??

Answer 1

Why It's Called Football

Some might say, simply, "because they kick the football."

But the real story is deeper. The origin of American football is in the history of the world's most popular sport: soccer. When soccer -- more universaly known as "football" (which of course makes sense because soccer players use their feet) -- participants decided to change their centuries-old game with restrictions such as the no-use of hand rules, people who disliked this broke away to create rugby. In the states we have created our own version of the game under the same old name "football" with more of a rugby style, the whole time forgetting why we call it that.

Here are other answers:

* American football is a derivative of rugby football, and while the feet are used more often in rugby than on the gridiron, much of the game is still played by handling the ball. Both variations are still considered football.

* 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.

Answer 2

Football was adapted by an Army General who felt Rugby needed some improvement. He felt greater discipline and strategy should be paramount. At the time, scoring was very similar to rugby in that you could kick (using your feet) or run the ball (which requires feet - usually). It wasn't until the early 30's when a young quarterback was discovered that had a knack for throwing the football. This talent earned him the nickname of "slingin" Sammy Baugh. And passing the football became an art for that dominated football. Soccer has it's british name of football because it's a sport where you can only use your feet. They stole the name from the Spanish in the 1800s. The Spaniards called it Futbol. Know what's beautiful about the whole thing? In order to identify the difference between the two sports; European News agency HAVE to call it "American Football". No other sport enjoys that national affiliation: theres no Chinese Diving, Puerto Rican Baseball, or British Cricket.

Answer 3

I think adam m hit i pretty well. I have lived in many countries having been in the US military for almost 25 years and every country refers to what we call soccer as football. And he's right about the ball being carried on foot when football was first developed. The game that we all know and love didn't happen until much later. I also agree with everyone who says the kicking game is important in football.

Answer 4

Outside the United States and Canada, the sport is referred to as American football (or sometimes as gridiron or gridiron football) to differentiate it from other football games.....

American football is directly descended from rugby football.

While it is widely believed that the word "football" (or "foot ball") originated in reference to the action of a foot kicking a ball, there is a rival explanation, which has it that football originally referred to a variety of games in medieval Europe, which were played on foot.[1] These games were usually played by peasants, as opposed to the horse-riding sports often played by aristocrats. While there is no conclusive evidence for this explanation, the word football has always implied a variety of games played on foot, not just those that involved kicking a ball. In some cases, the word football has even been applied to games which have specifically outlawed kicking the ball

Answer 5

The foot is used to start the game. What would you call it?

Answer 6

in the begging of the game the foot is used to kick the ball off

Answer 7

Well the foot is used but very rarely as you said. I personally think they were just to stupid to make up a better name.

Answer 8

Why does the game have to be named by an action of a body part? Are we going to have to rename rugby to something else as well?

Answer 9

The kicking game is an important part of the game.

Answer 10

its called that cause u are on ur feet and running or if ur blocking ur driving ur feet and if u had a torn acl or some thing that made u not able to run u would not be able to play esay as that