Does anyone know why american football is called football to begin with? I mean its barely played with feet afterall. "American handball" would really be more accurate.

You see an angle? It's just a sport - didn't know that football/soccer is something political. This is just a crazy women and you have crazy guys everywhere. The good thing is though that it's only an opinion, easy to ignore.

Given that almost all Americans (of both Americas) are/have been immigrants themselves... But I can live with not every nation being crazy for soccer. After all it's quite ridiculous to watch 90 minutes for a single all-deciding goal.

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this "politics" -angle precisely ;)
why is it ridiculous?

Only score matters and not the actual gameplay leading to that result?

Not americans, just a certain category of people, and you can find them in every country. Immigration is about integration (how to articulate your identity, practices, customs, background, to the local society). Xenophobia is about uniformity and the eradication of alterity. It takes two complementary shapes : exclusion and assimilation. What is not the absolute same must be either expelled, or transformed into the absolute same, two ways to suppress any difference and restore the fantasy of intemporal national/cultural homogeneity.

You can see this in many contexts, from ordinary xenophobic discourses about the neighbour not listening to the right music or not cooking the right food, to downright assimilationist (ethnocidary) policies towards native populations - a phase that generally overlaps and follows the colonial exterminations. The idea remains the same : the glorification of homogeneity, the horror of heterogeneity. With, in the case of migration, the fear of any influence on society, percieved as a "loss" from the pristine, "pure", popped-from-the-ground, traditional socioculture that is essentially the speaker's vision of his childhood environment, idealized, imagined as eternal (until the transformation he witnesses with terror), and integrated as "normality" (that is : superior to everything else in the world).

Whatever the country or context, once a person starts expecting "assimilation" instead of integration, you know to what family of thought he belongs. But it's not a specifically north-american thing. The USA as a whole are a very, very multicultural place (it has ceased to represent itself as a "melting pot" -the dubious illusion and expectation of fused and erased identities- and switched to the more healthy and realistic image of "salad bowl" - a mix of differences, functioning together), so there isn't more globally normative pressure there than in other places of the world.

It's just the manifestation of what tinyE said about families.

Sigh, and I'm the one that gets down repped by the ignorant hicks in here. Was 4 seconds of searching the Wikipedia really that hard?

Nobody knows for sure, but it's probably because the game originated in Europe and was one of those games that was played on foot.

BTW, say what you want about American football, but it doesn't attract the sort of lower class hicks, racists and hooligans that soccer does. Sure, American football fans can be a bit silly, but we don't need to punish teams for their racist fans.

It's oddly ironic that it's the pro-soccer folks in here that seem to be abusing rep the most.
That's just plain ignorant.

So, it's perfectly legal then for me to go around denying the holocaust and wearing a Nazi uniform in Germany, then? America demands very little compared with most other parts of the world, learn the language and be able to function in society. Up until recently our cultural identity was that we don't like soccer.

The point here is that as much as Europeans like to pretend like you're more tolerant, it's a limited tolerance and attention gets paid to how you're better than us. But, at least we don't throw people in jail for things that they say.

Actually sometimes it is. When you have 1,5y old kid crying for attention and food, youll just write something quick and leave it at that.

mmm, class sports - we like those dont we ;)

That really depends on country. For example here in Finland the only soccer holigans are the junior league players parents, who take the matches more seriously than the players do.

not sure what you mean by "rep" here. if you mean the +- buttons on the thread, personally i dont bother with them except maybe in some giveaway.

Yes, that would be my main point. Because there are so many random events leading to a goal or not - surprises happen quite frequently and results of single games fluctuate a lot. But then maybe this is the fascination with football of many people. Imagine football with bigger goals, a shorter field and less players per team resulting in many more goals. Statistically speaking this might result in much more stable results but I guess nobody really wants that. The general enthusiam for soccer is probably partly obsessive. It's just a sport but some people drive around their city for hours when their team wins which even might just be a lucky event.

Blame the British, it's the national answer to every oddity of language. It's because the game it came from was called football. Mob Football

The innovation that makes American football no longer Rugby is the uncontested scrimmage (the team that had the ball, keeps the ball when the ball carrier is down). Walter Camp is considered the father of American football for having invented this.

No, your government uses far more efficient means to silence people instead.

Also it's hilarious that you - as an American - ridicule the limitations of freedom of speech in Germany, particularly the ones concerning right-wing extremism (I'm not sure what others exist), since those are explained as being in violation of the German constitution. The one imposed by the occupational forces after World War 2. That includes the United States. Derp.

Either way, you demand that immigrants respect your nation. Judging by your reaction I misunderstood your statement. Please elaborate on what "respecting the United States" means in your opinion, how you want your immigrants to behave.

R.I.P el pulpo Paulo.

mob football sounds pretty much like anything kids do with balls everywhere around the world.

still waiting to see the platemail variation though - someone ought to hint "Battle of Nations" really ;)

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Also why there isnt any "Jugger" on TV? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUIN7ZGC27o

>> Blood of Heroes

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Someone ought to send some balls for the japanese: i think there might be urgent need for them.

<span class="bold">Lacrosse</span> is the true American sport.
Funny how some descendants of the most greedy European conquerers always argue with their genocidal heritage as if it actually was something to be proud of and would be giving you more rights and culture. oO

It most certainly is. It is far more exciting when there is chance for the turnover. If a match gets resolved in couple minutes they could just as well skip the last half for example.

Well it sounds boring, as "scoring" is not better just because its bigger. 1-1 match is most likely more interesting than 0-3 for example.

Also personally i see its more interesting when single goal has more impact than every player casually scoring alot of times like in say basketball (roughly). Scoring should be something that needs skills and even bit luck, not just something done casually.

(also just to remind, i am NOT avid soccer fan - but the scoring makes sense to me)

You could call it modern religion. But that fits all the most popular sports really.

Most people want to be part of something, do something social and have something to be proud of. Also chance to drink beer is always appreciated.

Now that we have mostly run out of witch burnings and gladiator matches, sports are decent substitute ;)

In short, its really social-group thing.

O RLY? This link says otherwise.