(02-05-2024, 10:33 AM)snarkyguy_he_him_his Wrote: When I tell soccer fans why it's called a football they shut up, think and then say okay well then that makes sense.

The balls they use are a foot long, therefore a football.

American footballs are 11 inches long.
Not a foot. 

The game began as collegiate athletic clubs in the 1870's began experimenting combining elements of European Football (soccer) and Rugby. (known as "rugby football" at the time)

Soccer was not even called "soccer" at this point. It was just football as it had been for eons. 

So Americans did not begin calling the new sport football due to the ball dimensions. They called it football because it was a variation on two types of European football. 
Student athletes at Oxford across the pond coined the term "soccer" to label the most widely popular "association football" differently from "rugby football" 

Rugby football was called "rugger"
Association Football was called "soccer" 

American and Canadian colleges at the time adopted the soccer term for the old game and kept the simplistic "football" for their newly developed sport. 

We have the Canadians to thank for the forward pass by the way. Americans in the late 1800's adopted several rule changes that the Canadians came up with - while the Canadians did not adopt many of those developed in the states.

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