I mean, the sport us Yanks call "football" really doesn't USE the feet all that much, at least not in conjunction with the ball. Sure, there are kickoffs and field goals and punts and extra points, but generally the ball is moved by running or passing. In what the rest of the world calls "football" (or as I prefer the Spanish spelling, "futbol"), the ball really DOES travel by foot the vast majority of the time; only an occasional header or the goalkeeper's thrown ball, or a sideline throw in, ever disturbs the kicking. Soccer DESERVES the name "football" - our sport does not. Even Aussie Rules Footy is more "foot"-oriented: the majority of ball transport and ALL of the major scores are done by kicking, although the hitting of the ball is 40% or so of the passing and the leaping to grab spectacular "marks", or catches, are signnificant as well. Maybe we can stick with "footy" as the name for Aussie Rules, eh?
So, what do we call the NFL, CFL, NCAA brand of the obloid ball game, if "football" as a name is taken? (And by the way, "futbol" had first dibs on the name anyway, so there's that...)
The British have been known to call it "gridiron", as have some American sportswriters, probably because the yardlines spaced exactly every fifteen feet give it the "grid" design. (Nobody's adequately explained the "iron" part to me, however!) Considering the huddle up nature of the game, some soccer wags have called it "stop-and-go" with some accuracy. Since "handball" is also taken, we could go with something like "passball", "runball", or some such term.
Give us your ideas! Write your suggestion(s) in the comments below.
WHAT WOULD BE AN IDEAL RE-BRANDING OF THE GAME WE KNOW AS "FOOTBALL"?
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