Warp wrote:
>   As far as I can see, the official name is "association football" (I have
> no idea why it's named like that).

Because it's the set of rules for football standardized by the Football 
Association. Read the "history" on that page. :-)  The "association" is the 
group of schools that decided you're not allowed to run with the ball in 
your hand. The "non-association" teams were the ones that disliked that 
rule, who later went on to play rugby.

As an aside, I was amused by the names of the players in Rugby. The 
offensive players have the titles
"hooker" (who hooks the ball with his foot), two "props" who prop up the 
hooker, two "locks" who lock the hooker in place, two "flankers" who flank 
the hooker, and "number 8."

I come to the conclusion that it's "number 8" because his job is to push on 
the hooker's thighs with his shoulders, and he didn't want the title "guy 
with his head between the hooker's thighs."



-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   Human nature dictates that toothpaste tubes spend
   much longer being almost empty than almost full.

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Darren New wrote:
> 
> We call it football here. Europeans call it "American football". It's 
> based on a game called "Grid iron", so you hear that too. Chinese call 
> it "olive ball."
> 

I thought that it was based on rugby league.


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Best Regards,
	Stephen

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Stephen wrote:
> Darren New wrote:
>>
>> We call it football here. Europeans call it "American football". It's 
>> based on a game called "Grid iron", so you hear that too. Chinese call 
>> it "olive ball."
>>
> 
> I thought that it was based on rugby league.

That too. "Gridiron" refers in part to the field marked off with lots of 
lines. So you can call it "gridiron football" to distinguish it from "soccer 
football" or "rugby football". "American football" is what americans play. 
"Gridiron" is what americans, canadians, australians, etc play. They're all 
terms for rules that are approximately similar, just like you have rugby 
rules for different numbers of players and such.

Certainly a lot of the rules and concepts and especially terminology comes 
from rugby.  For example, it's still called a touch down in american 
football even tho you don't actually have to touch it down. Altho it's 
common to spike the ball when you've made a touchdown in american football.

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   Human nature dictates that toothpaste tubes spend
   much longer being almost empty than almost full.

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Darren New wrote:

> That too. "Gridiron" refers in part to the field marked off with lots of 
> lines. So you can call it "gridiron football" to distinguish it from 
> "soccer football" or "rugby football". "American football" is what 
> americans play. "Gridiron" is what americans, canadians, australians, 
> etc play. They're all terms for rules that are approximately similar, 
> just like you have rugby rules for different numbers of players and such.
> 
> Certainly a lot of the rules and concepts and especially terminology 
> comes from rugby.  For example, it's still called a touch down in 
> american football even tho you don't actually have to touch it down. 
> Altho it's common to spike the ball when you've made a touchdown in 
> american football.
> 
:)

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Best Regards,
	Stephen

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Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:
> If you'd rather I just call it "football" like the other 300 million people
> around me, without distinguishing it from what *you* call football, I'm
> happy to oblige. It's just going to be confusing as hell.

I prefer to side with the rest of the 5 billion or so world inhabitants in
calling football a game played with the foot and a ball.

> Thank you for your troll. It has been noted.

Thanks, sometimes I feel like it's my messianic job to point out inconsistent,
religious-like reasoning.  and yeah, I know how inconsistent that sounds...

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nemesis wrote:
> I prefer to side with the rest of the 5 billion or so world inhabitants in
> calling football a game played with the foot and a ball.

Since I didn't call either one "football", I'm not sure there was a problem. :-)

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   Human nature dictates that toothpaste tubes spend
   much longer being almost empty than almost full.

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Darren New wrote:
> Since I didn't call either one "football", I'm not sure there was a 
> problem. :-)

Oh, and for those amused by such things, in chinese...

soccer = foot ball
american football = olive ball
badminton = feather ball
tennis = net ball
racquetball = paddle ball
and, of course, ping pong = ping pong ;-)

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   Human nature dictates that toothpaste tubes spend
   much longer being almost empty than almost full.

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Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:
> and, of course, ping pong = ping pong ;-)

I also tend to think they pronounce it exactly like that, something almost as
universal as "mama".  Sadly, it's now called "table tennis" nowadays or so I
heard.

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On 12/12/09 11:31, Darren New wrote:
> In any case, soccer is merely a particular version of football, so
> calling it "soccer" is actually *more* accurate than calling it "football".

	Them fightin' words!


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nemesis wrote:
> Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:
>> and, of course, ping pong = ping pong ;-)
> 
> I also tend to think they pronounce it exactly like that, something almost as
> universal as "mama".  Sadly, it's now called "table tennis" nowadays or so I
> heard.
> 
> 



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Best Regards,
	Stephen

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