What Is The Difference Between American Football and Soccer? | The Highlights App

British people call their favorite sport “football,” but Americans use the same term to talk about the most popular one in their country—which is why they use the term “soccer” when talking about the first one. However, just by watching tournaments like the Premier League or the National Football League’s  (NFL) Super Bowl you can notice how different these sports are. Let’s take a look at the origins and meaning of “soccer” and “football.”

Soccer

Though it is heavily associated with the US, the truth is that this term actually originated in England. Back in the day, the term “football” was used for all sorts of games that involved a ball. English schools and clubs gave more clarity to this situation in 1863, when they formed the Football Association to make soccer an official sport with its own set of rules.

Since another popular game was also known as “rugby football” by then, soccer in England became known as “Association Football.” However, to make the word shorter and easier to use day-to-day, British people started to use abbreviations such as “assoc,” which later mutated to “assoccer,” and eventually “soccer” or “soccer football.”

However, since “rugby” was adopted to refer to the other form of football—in which players carry the ball with their hands—the British stuck to “football” instead of “association football.” On the other hand, the Americans started to refer to the latter as “soccer”. “Football” was used for another sport that became more popular in their country.

American Football

While rugby and association football were the most renowned sports in the UK, another sport that combined aspects of both started to emerge in North America late in the 19th century. It was just a matter of time before its popularity surpassed that of the sports coming from Britain, and it became known as “gridiron football.” However, Americans simply referred to it as “football,” while association football players started to distinguish their sport by calling it “soccer.”

Since this variation of the sport wasn’t played that much outside the US, in the rest of the world—particularly in the UK, to differentiate it from their own “football”—it became known as “American football.”

Many argue this name makes no sense because the ball is carried with the hands, but we have to keep in mind that this is just one of the many sports that derived from football. Besides, the length of the ball—approximately one foot—has also been mentioned as a reason behind using this name, instead of “American rugby” or other terms.