# What are soccer players called in the USA? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [November 16, 2008, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-soccer-players-called-in-the-usa/472943 "2008-11-16T02:04:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![chique](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@chique](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chique)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2008, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-soccer-players-called-in-the-usa/472943/21 "2008-11-16T11:17:23Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > It’s funny how, judging by the posts here, Americans seem to think soccer is a ridiculously effete sport, presumably because the players don’t need to wear lots of protective gear like they do in American football. A friend of mine (and one-time board member) thinks football is ridiculously effete first because of the bad acting (aka diving); and second because the diver is then stretchered off for his sore (presumably broken) leg, only to jog back on to the pitch two minutes later. He admits that footballers are great athletes but, for him, these actions put football into the figure skating column of sport. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2008, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-soccer-players-called-in-the-usa/472943/22 "2008-11-16T11:25:59Z")
> [@chique](#): > > A friend of mine (and one-time board member) thinks football is ridiculously effete first because of the bad acting (aka diving); and second because the diver is then stretchered off for his sore (presumably broken) leg, only to jog back on to the pitch two minutes later. He admits that footballers are great athletes but, for him, these actions put football into the figure skating column of sport. I’ve been watching soccer for 47 years. 🆒 There is indeed some diving, although referees can now penalise a player for it. **I have never seen a player stretchered off, then return two minutes later**. Have you got a cite for this? (If a player is stretchered off, the crowd goes quiet and the commentators then report on what happened when the doctors / hospital examined him.) ---
**Author:** ![chique](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@chique](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chique)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2008, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-soccer-players-called-in-the-usa/472943/23 "2008-11-16T11:46:31Z")
> [@glee](#): > > **I have never seen a player stretchered off, then return two minutes later**. Have you got a cite for this? Of course not; my friend is full of crap. 😉 But I sort of see his point. If someone is injured in American football the clock stops, trainers gather around, the player is treated on the field while the viewing audience is subjected to yet another commercial-filled TV time out, and the player eventually limps off the field of play under his own power or (in serious cases) gets driven off in a golf cart. In real football it’s not uncommon for a player suffering from an injury to be quickly removed from the field to recover on the sidelines for a few minutes while play continues on. It’s a matter of perception, not fact. ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2008, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-soccer-players-called-in-the-usa/472943/24 "2008-11-16T12:01:05Z")
> [@glee](#): > > I’ve been watching soccer for 47 years. 🆒 > > [ And in those days we had “The Magic Sponge” None of your fancy dan sprays and smelling salts, a swift splash with an ice cold sponge and Matthews was off, weaving his magic down the wing. And and half time it was a Woodbine and a cuppa char ---
**Author:** ![Jman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jman/32/4416_2.png) [@Jman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jman)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2008, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-soccer-players-called-in-the-usa/472943/25 "2008-11-16T12:52:17Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > It’s funny how, judging by the posts here, Americans seem to think soccer is a ridiculously effete sport, presumably because the players don’t need to wear lots of protective gear like they do in American football. Whereas over here, we think American football is extremely poofy, for exactly the same reason 😉 I don’t view soccer that way, but if you think American football is poofy because they wear lots of protective gear, you haven’t watched a lot of it. Without the protective gear, in todays game (in the early game, players were a LOT smaller), you’d have career ending injuries in every single game, and likely four or five deaths a year. Watch this video (which also contains many clips of not hard hits, and clips with NO hits, but some of those shown are quite brutal): [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YH8470V2hHY](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YH8470V2hHY) There are broken legs, broken jaws, broken arms, broken ribs and concussions galore in the NFL even WITH the protection. But yes, they’re called soccer players. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2008, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-soccer-players-called-in-the-usa/472943/26 "2008-11-16T16:45:54Z")
> [@chique](#): > > But I sort of see his point. If someone is injured in American football the clock stops, trainers gather around, the player is treated on the field while the viewing audience is subjected to yet another commercial-filled TV time out, and the player eventually limps off the field of play under his own power or (in serious cases) gets driven off in a golf cart. In real football it’s not uncommon for a player suffering from an injury to be quickly removed from the field to recover on the sidelines for a few minutes while play continues on. It’s a matter of perception, not fact. I remember watching (or rather, trying to watch - I found it boring) a High School US football game (in Colorado) and one player was seirously injured (driven off by an ambulance; IIRC, he had a neck injury/ was paralysed), the game continued until the next player died from a similar neck/head injury!:eek: As for soccer being effeminate - while we do have women soccer teams in the past decades (though still not professionally, sadly - it’s a bit circular: TV won’t cover it because not enough viewers are interested; without coverage, no sponsors, so no money, without money no professional team and leagues; without pro leagues and no coverage, no viewers. Despite the German Women soccer team winning the world cup several years back with a big victory (I think 6:0). But despite that, soccer sadly is still a rather macho club. Some time ago I read a newspaper commentary lamenting how backwards the soccer society is, that contrary to normal /general society, if a soccer player is outed as gay/outs himself, he will face incredible hostility by his team members, the fans and managers. Which is why only very, very few active players have outed themselves - the last one was attacked by a fan, and the two or three other ones were retired when they came out. This is doubly weird because when watching soccer on TV, there’s sure a lot of touching, backslapping, hugging… until the t-shirt exchange at the end, where we get to see all the half-naked, sweating bodies .. and then they all take a hot shower together … yeah, it does sound gay. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2008, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-soccer-players-called-in-the-usa/472943/27 "2008-11-16T16:58:40Z")
I wouldn’t call American Football silly names because I like watching it. And the chaps are athletic, even if they are off the field most of the time. But in the 1956 English Cup Final, Bert Trautmann played on with a broken neck. :eek: And Soccer is a non-contact sport (you’re supposed to play the ball, not the opponent). Rugby is our contact sport (no paddings / helmets ;)) ---
**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2008, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-soccer-players-called-in-the-usa/472943/28 "2008-11-16T17:56:25Z")
If you are going to make any comparisons between sports, then soccer and American Football isn’t the one to make, especially when considering the use of protective equipment. Reason the UK and its former Commonwealth might perhaps think of American football as a bit soft is the comparison with rugby, especially rugby league. Rugby league the players will sometimes wear some form of head protection, however this has to be soft, so it generally only protects against scalp injuries. If it were not for the helmets worn by American Football players, perhaps much of the rest would be less necessary. A Rugby League tackle (as opposed to rugby union) is similar to an American football tackle, its usually one on one, and the play stops dead where the carrier goes down, and as a result the impacts are pretty huge. Occasionally they have Rugby League vs Rugby Union series, where they play 2 games against each other and swap codes. The Rugby League tackles tend to be much harder, but the player is expecting the impact and deals with it, in Rugby Union there is no point in a fully committed tackle, even if you stop the ball carrier he just feeds it back in a maul, and you have one of the defenders sucked into the play and cannot get back in place to follow the rest of the game which then makes its way further upfield. ---
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2008, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-soccer-players-called-in-the-usa/472943/29 "2008-11-16T19:02:26Z")
> [@glee](#): > > **I have never seen a player stretchered off, then return two minutes later**. Have you got a cite for this? No, but I know this has happened during the past two World Cups. In one instance the player down on the ground looked like he was at death’s door. I fully expected that, instead of a stretcher and medical people, four pallbearers would bring on a coffin accompanied by the strains of Mozart’s Requiem Mass (in D minor). Regrettably, the stretcher duly arrived and the stricken man was carried off. He made a miraculous recovery and was back on the field of play in no time at all. I’ve crawled all over the internet for a video of such antics but I’m unable to locate an example. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2008, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-soccer-players-called-in-the-usa/472943/30 "2008-11-16T19:11:06Z")
> [@casdave](#): > > If If it were not for the helmets worn by American Football players, perhaps much of the rest would be less necessary. American football was an incredibly dangerous sport pretty much from its inception, long before the helmets and padding got as protective as tehy are today. Early football was dangerous to an extent that would never be allowed to be legal today. ---
**Author:** ![shallora](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f9ae1b/32.png) [@shallora](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shallora)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2008, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-soccer-players-called-in-the-usa/472943/31 "2008-11-16T19:19:54Z")
> [@JXJohns](#): > > Curler > > Bowler > > Soccer Player = Grass Fairy (I kid, I kid!) In America it’s . . . Football player (American football) Soccer player (called football in other countries) Baseball player Basketball player Volleyball player Softball player Golfer Bowler Swimmer Diver (someone who dives in the pool) LaCrosse player Race-car driver Horse rider Wrestler Runner (cross country, marathon) Track & Field: Hurdler, long jumper, shot putter, javelin thrower Dart thrower Gymnist ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2008, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-soccer-players-called-in-the-usa/472943/32 "2008-11-16T19:44:01Z")
People in the UK seem to like making fun of US sports for some reason. My cousin was giving me a hard time about American football and how high the scores are, and how basketball is the same, and American’s can’t appreciate a low scoring sport. Of course then I asked him what the score was in his last cricket match 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![neutron\_star](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/51bf81/32.png) [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2008, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-soccer-players-called-in-the-usa/472943/33 "2008-11-16T19:55:33Z")
> [@constanze](#): > > I remember watching (or rather, trying to watch - I found it boring) a High School US football game (in Colorado) and one player was seirously injured (driven off by an ambulance; IIRC, he had a neck injury/ was paralysed), the game continued until the next player died from a similar neck/head injury!:eek: Wait, am I reading this right? You attended a high school football game where one player was paralyzed and another _died on the field_? Are you serious? ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2008, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-soccer-players-called-in-the-usa/472943/34 "2008-11-16T20:02:44Z")
[QUOTE=glee; But in the 1956 English Cup Final, Bert Trautmann played on with a broken neck. :eek: [/QUOTE] I’m proud to say I was at that game. Good Old Bert:p ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2008, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-soccer-players-called-in-the-usa/472943/35 "2008-11-16T20:13:59Z")
> [@neutron\_star](#): > > Wait, am I reading this right? You attended a high school football game where one player was paralyzed and another _died on the field_? Are you serious? Yes, I’m serious. I have a hard time remembering details, so I may often be mistaken or mix those up, but this wasn’t a joke or whoosh or lie. I did see the ambulance driving onto the field (I hadn’t watched the accident itself, because I had a hard time paying attention) and the injured players being taken away. Sitting far off the field and being no doctor, I couldn’t judge the injuries myself, but this is what the other people there told (I think there was an announcment.) It was one game out of the whole season that had this bad a record, though. If you want to try and find it: it was Broomfield High Shool near Denver Colorado, and it was the season of 1989/90 (I think it was in autumn on homecoming - a big game, which is why I went to see it, it was the only live game I watched there. It was certainly cold, so autumn or winter of 1989). ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2008, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-soccer-players-called-in-the-usa/472943/36 "2008-11-16T20:19:51Z")
> [@shallora](#): > > LaCrosse player Except virtually nobody capitalizes the ‘c’. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2008, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-soccer-players-called-in-the-usa/472943/37 "2008-11-16T20:21:36Z")
Given that the GQ answer to this was given in the thread title, let’s move this to The Game Room. Colibri General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2008, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-soccer-players-called-in-the-usa/472943/38 "2008-11-16T20:25:59Z")
> [@neutron\_star](#): > > Wait, am I reading this right? You attended a high school football game where one player was paralyzed and another _died on the field_? Are you serious? The last thing the player heard was probably the coach saying “Walk it off Jeblonsky”. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2008, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-soccer-players-called-in-the-usa/472943/39 "2008-11-16T21:51:06Z")
> [@neutron\_star](#): > > Wait, am I reading this right? You attended a high school football game where one player was paralyzed and another _died on the field_? Are you serious? Just a month or two ago, a high school football player in my town (Holliston, MA) took a hard hit and walked off the field complaining of pain in his abdominal region. He died later that night from massive internal injuries. My daughter is only in 1st grade but she had to go through another set of group grief counseling because the town isn’t that big and lots of kids knew him and his family. I had to drive past the funeral home viewing which spanned blocks. High school football is especially dangerous because so many people play and not all of them are well-conditioned. NFL players get hurt but they are all athletic superstars so it makes it harder for them to get killed although many get debilitating injuries from the sport. ---
**Author:** ![ruadh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2008, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-soccer-players-called-in-the-usa/472943/40 "2008-11-16T22:13:05Z")
> [@chique](#): > > A friend of mine (and one-time board member) thinks football is ridiculously effete first because of the bad acting (aka diving); and second because the diver is then stretchered off for his sore (presumably broken) leg, only to jog back on to the pitch two minutes later. So, first because of acting and second because of acting. There are plenty of examples of real injuries though. John Thomson, Celtic keeper, died a few hours after a game from head injuries received in it. And see [here](http://champions-league-betting.com/worst-injuries.html). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-soccer-players-called-in-the-usa/472943.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-soccer-players-called-in-the-usa/472943.md?page=3)