I am going to dredge up this old thread for the purpose of answering a question put to me in a recent thread.
And because I would like to have the last word on this matter.
BTGuy, I don’t know if you are still active in any respect, but I seem to recall answering this question on a separate thread. I will quickly repeat that for your benefit.
Having two names does not make either of them lose their legitimacy. I have no objection to Americans referring to Soccer within their own country, as they have [mis]appropriated the word Football to refer to their inferior form of Rugby, a game that incidentally has no ‘Ball’, which the dictionary defines as being round or at least almost round, and which has no use of the ‘Foot’. But never mind that, amongst themselves they may use whichever term they fancy.
It is when Americans seek to impose their misnomer onto the rest off the world, i.e. the civilised portion who recognise Football/Soccer as a better, more skilful and more enjoyable pursuit, that I take umbrage.
‘Soccer’, as has been pointed out, is a word that stems from the official name of the sport, Association Football. It is basically a slang term for Football. The name of the game is Football, the Association part refers to the particular set of codified rules. So the name actually is Football, and it can also be referred to as Soccer. We choose to refer to it as Football, as is our right both as the ones who got there first and the majority. American Football’s official name is Gridiron Football, the Gridiron referring to the field it is played on, and therefore can be referred to either as American Football, Gridiron (as I have heard it called by Americans) or, amongst Americans, as simply Football.
So your point about Football/Soccer hogging both names, whilst AF only has Football as it’s name, is nonsensical for two reasons. Firstly, as I have said above, even were it true, so what? Why would we change the name we invented, and that is used by the vast majority of the inhabitants of this planet, and got to first, in order to accommodate a country that not only can’t come up with any good sports, it can’t even name them properly. And secondly, your point isn’t correct anyway. AF/Gridiron has plenty of names, more than Soccer/Football even, and therefore can bow to the inevitable and use them when in an international setting such as this forum (if the website wishes to refer to itself as Yeshiva World News then it is only fair it should be international).
And I will not claim for this to be the last word, as you did, to avoid confusion if you are in any way unable to answer.