The Arrogance of the Americans To Keep Calling It Soccer and Not Football

It's a misleading headline because Americans love the name "football" just fine, and "soccer" can stay just the way it is. The thing is, it's not arrogance. When you learn how these names came to be in the first place, you won't think of Americans as arrogant at all.

The UK is actually where the Americans got the name soccer in the first place. It’s called soccer because it’s short for Association Football. The word “association” breaks down to “soccer,” and America has kept it that way ever since. When Americans get stuck on something, it's hard to get them to let it go.

The NFL actually began in the 1920s with only a few teams to start. It was being built while other leagues were forming. The AFL came along in the 1960s, and it actually was the fourth football league since the NFL began. When it started to compete by gaining television rights and bringing in top players, the NFL decided to merge in 1970, and that’s the game known today, plus and minus changes over the years.

The NFL isn’t just a sport anymore, it’s a full-blown spectacle that owns Sundays and takes over living rooms across the country. You can feel it when the anthem fades, the crowd swells, and the cameras lock in on the faces of players who are more than athletes—they’re modern legends. Tom Brady turned winning into an art, Peyton Manning rewrote the playbook with his mind, and Jerry Rice made every catch look like destiny. Now it’s Patrick Mahomes dropping no-look passes, Josh Allen bulldozing defenders, and Aaron Donald wrecking offensive lines like they’re made of paper. When you tune in, you’re not just watching football, you’re part of the energy, the history, and the noise of a game that has never been bigger.

Meanwhile, the word “soccer” was being used throughout the UK, but they went back to calling it “football” starting in the 1970s and finally getting all the way there by the 1980s. By then, America had already established a National Football League and an American Soccer League. Once called the American Football Association, the ASL was formed in 1919.

Soccer struggled in America for many years, but emerged in the 1970s after the North American Soccer League was formed and Pelé was signed to the New York Cosmos. That gave the sport the boost it needed to stay alive in America. With the NFL having an established trademark and a huge business to run, they weren’t about to follow the lead of the UK and change the names all around. America was set in its ways, and that was that.

Here’s the kicker, pun absolutely intended, Soccer and Football only scratch the surface of what it’s all about. There is an entire body of football games that include Association Football, Gridiron Football, Australian Rules Football, International Rules Football, Rugby, and a special game called Gaelic Football. Now, Gaelic is very interesting because it seems that’s the one that started it all.

In Ireland in the 1300s, it all started with what they called Ancient Mob football. Without going into an entire history of it, the game wasn’t liked that well at first, only by the players themselves. It took a few centuries for the public to take to it, and now it has rules.

Gaelic football combines soccer, rugby, and basketball, if you can believe that. It is played with a round ball like soccer in a rectangular field that has a net at each end with uprights. But a player can run with the ball in their hands. They can only run four steps before they have to either bounce it like a basketball, kick it to themselves, or pass it off to another player. Scores can be made through the net or the uprights. That’s about all there is to say about the rules of the game, but it is exciting to watch.

So no, Americans aren’t being arrogant when they call the round ball game where players can’t use their hands “Soccer.” Americans can be called hard-headed. When they get used to something, they like to keep it the way it is. But of all the things they are arrogant about, calling the game they love “Football” isn’t one of them. You have the UK to thank for that.

There you go! That’s something you know now.