# What do you consider football? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [July 8, 2013, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-consider-football/662910 "2013-07-08T03:31:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![installLSC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/54ee81/32.png) [@installLSC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/installLSC)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-consider-football/662910/1 "2013-07-08T03:31:06Z")
With another “why do Americans dislike soccer” thread in this forum, I decided to post a thread of what you consider football. Do you associate the word with soccer, American football, Australian rules, or something else? ---
**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-consider-football/662910/2 "2013-07-08T03:45:55Z")
Basically if it’s said with a British accent I assume soccer. Otherwise NFL. ---
**Author:** ![Krav\_Manga](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/krav_manga/32/3153_2.png) [@Krav\_Manga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Krav_Manga)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-consider-football/662910/3 "2013-07-08T04:15:41Z")
Both rugby football codes have a greater fan base than AFL. I choose other. ---
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-consider-football/662910/4 "2013-07-08T04:24:23Z")
> [@Krav\_Manga](#): > > Both rugby football codes have a greater fan base than AFL. I choose other. When I hear “AFL” I think of the American Football League which played in the US in the 1960s and merged into the National Football League (NFL) of the US in 1970. What AFL are you referring to Kray? When I think of “football” I think of American football. Not just the NFL variety, but also including college football, high school football and various other football leagues based in the US. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-consider-football/662910/5 "2013-07-08T06:09:24Z")
Amazingly, I have the ability to adapt my usage of the word “Football” depending on context. Thus I can use it to mean, pretty much any of them. Weird how few people have this ability. ---
**Author:** ![Krav\_Manga](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/krav_manga/32/3153_2.png) [@Krav\_Manga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Krav_Manga)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-consider-football/662910/6 "2013-07-08T06:44:50Z")
> [@zamboniracer](#): > > When I hear “AFL” I think of the American Football League which played in the US in the 1960s and merged into the National Football League (NFL) of the US in 1970. What AFL are you referring to Kray? > > When I think of “football” I think of American football. Not just the NFL variety, but also including college football, high school football and various other football leagues based in the US. AFL in my context refers to the Australian Football League ) (formerly the Victorian Football League), the worlds premier Australian rules football competition. Aussie rules, also known as aerial ping pong, is primarily played in the southern states. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-consider-football/662910/7 "2013-07-08T06:47:42Z")
Hard to say. My early conditioning makes me think of it as American football automatically, but after decades over here my thought changes to soccer a split second later. So if you _are_ talking about American football, I then have to change my thought back to that. ---
**Author:** ![Batistuta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/58956e/32.png) [@Batistuta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Batistuta)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-consider-football/662910/8 "2013-07-08T07:22:05Z")
I live in Europe, so I have to assume that if someone says “football” they mean the sport where a spherical **ball** is kicked around using players’ **feet**. Anything else should be called ‘hand-egg’ ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-consider-football/662910/9 "2013-07-08T07:35:47Z")
> [@Batistuta](#): > > I live in Europe, so I have to assume that if someone says “football” they mean the sport where a spherical **ball** is kicked around using players’ **feet**. Anything else should be called ‘hand-egg’ The game they play in Europe should be called “synchronized diving”, since we’re going down that road. American (gridiron) football is the result of a long evolution, starting with soccer, and having elements of rugby and its own addition of the forward pass. Given that, I have no real objection to it being called football even though the kicking part of it has been minimized. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-consider-football/662910/10 "2013-07-08T07:53:05Z")
Why is the poll single-choice? And you left out rugby. ---
**Author:** ![Sr\_Siete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@Sr\_Siete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sr_Siete)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-consider-football/662910/11 "2013-07-08T07:59:33Z")
Since I’m European, I don’t call it “football”, I call it “0’3meterball”. ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-consider-football/662910/12 "2013-07-08T13:21:51Z")
Like **amanset** , I can actually evaluate based on context and determine the sport referred to on the fly. I do admit that I’d probably never correctly identify Aussie rules football, because I know absolutely nothing about it and am never in the company of people talking about it. On the other hand, if someone starts talking about footy, I do know **that** , at least, is association football. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-consider-football/662910/13 "2013-07-08T15:11:36Z")
> [@amanset](#): > > Amazingly, I have the ability to adapt my usage of the word “Football” depending on context. Thus I can use it to mean, pretty much any of them. > > Weird how few people have this ability. I was going to post something similar. In Los Angeles, what “football” means is very context dependent. Either adapt or be misunderstood. > [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](#): > > American (gridiron) football is the result of a long evolution, starting with soccer, and having elements of rugby and its own addition of the forward pass. Given that, I have no real objection to it being called football even though the kicking part of it has been minimized. American football did not develop from soccer, they both evolved from the same ancestor. Soccer greatly de-emphasized the use of hands (but still has some), while American football de-emphasized the use of feet (but still has some). Other football variants which also evolved from the same ancestor (like rugby) fall in between those extremes. ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-consider-football/662910/14 "2013-07-08T15:24:06Z")
I am American, so if the word “football” is used without any context, I associate it with American football. But I hardly ever come across the word “football” just hanging in space all by itself. Generally it’s not too difficult to figure out if the word is intended to refer to American football or to soccer. As far as Australian rules, or any other type of ‘football’: those are rare enough here that my mind doesn’t go to any of those possibilities unless given a particular reason. ---
**Author:** ![installLSC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/54ee81/32.png) [@installLSC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/installLSC)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-consider-football/662910/15 "2013-07-08T15:30:32Z")
> [@Batistuta](#): > > I live in Europe, so I have to assume that if someone says “football” they mean the sport where a spherical **ball** is kicked around using players’ **feet**. Anything else should be called ‘hand-egg’ You do know that many sports historians think the term “football” originally referred to sports played on foot (as opposed to horseback)? [Relevant cite (pay attention to the quoted article".](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_(word)#Etymology) ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Greenjeans](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.greenjeans/32/551_2.png) [@Mr.Greenjeans](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Greenjeans)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-consider-football/662910/16 "2013-07-08T17:12:29Z")
> [@Batistuta](#): > > I live in Europe, so I have to assume that if someone says “football” they mean the sport where a spherical **ball** is kicked around using players’ **feet**. Anything else should be called ‘hand-egg’ By that logic, the Goal Keeper (who is not even dressed like the rest of the team) is not playing football. Further, if they can kick the ball, head the ball, bounce the ball off their chest, or pretty much do anything except touch the ball with their hands, it should be called Anything-But-Hand Ball! ---
**Author:** ![BigNik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/73ab20/32.png) [@BigNik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigNik)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2013, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-consider-football/662910/17 "2013-07-09T00:09:15Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Why is the poll single-choice? And you left out rugby. And rugby league, which is the usual ‘football’ around here (Sydney, Australia). ---
**Author:** ![magnusblitz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@magnusblitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magnusblitz)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2013, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-consider-football/662910/18 "2013-07-09T03:29:16Z")
> [@Batistuta](#): > > I live in Europe, so I have to assume that if someone says “football” they mean the sport where a spherical **ball** is kicked around using players’ **feet**. Anything else should be called ‘hand-egg’ Was it ever decided if the term “football” came from “sport where the ball is kicked with a foot” or “sport played on foot (as opposed to on horseback)”? ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2013, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-consider-football/662910/19 "2013-07-09T03:55:39Z")
Apparently they do call it soccer in some parts of Australia. I knew an Aussie who was the sports editor of one of Thailand’s two English-language dailies, and since some match being reported on in Australia involved one or maybe both teams that did call it soccer, he used the term soccer. He received a scathing e-mail from some Brit castigating him for using Americanisms. I saw the e-mail, and it really was over the top. Funny what some people can get their knickers into a twist about. ---
**Author:** ![sisu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@sisu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sisu)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2013, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-consider-football/662910/20 "2013-07-09T04:57:21Z")
> [@Krav\_Manga](#): > > Both rugby football codes have a greater fan base than AFL. I choose other. If someone says Football I assume they mean Soccer. I’m a huge AFL fan but no one calls AFL football, it’s footy mate! I haven’t heard anyone in day to day call League or Union football. Oh except my friend from Seattle, when she says Football I assume shes talking NFL. So there ya go, day to day use football = soccer. OH and how many people turn up to a league game every week? AFL may have a smaller fan base but it has a larger actual fan quotient. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-consider-football/662910.md?page=2)