wswordsmen t1_j14qhsg wrote on December 21, 2022 at 5:35 PM

Reply to comment by JustTrixxy in ELI5: Why does American football is named "football" and football is named "soccer" in America ? by RedAskWhy

And football, all of them, are named for the fact you play it on your feet, not how you can touch the ball. American Football has as much right to the name as Association Football, Rugby Football and a number of other sport. Wikipedia seems to have about 10 modern footballs listed.

jfurt16 t1_j14r2op wrote on December 21, 2022 at 5:38 PM

Australian football too is named the Australian Football League and oft referred to solely as "football"

eloel- t1_j154i82 wrote on December 21, 2022 at 7:04 PM

>And football, all of them, are named for the fact you play it on your feet, not how you can touch the ball.

So games like basketball, tennis or volleyball are also "football". That's some weird reasoning.

How is it a useful distinction? What ball games aren't played on your feet?

wswordsmen t1_j155ozs wrote on December 21, 2022 at 7:12 PM

You have to go back to when these games were developing where horseback games were reasonable, Polo being the best known today.

I am not sure I'd those other games qualify as football games, just they meet the criteria that got the name.