True
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
Comment to see.
Yep, society football’s main good point is you can do a decent pickup game like with street basketball when you only have a grassy area, instead of a cement one. Don’t even need even numbers.
Seems like a good place to note that though the English have started to insist they never called it “Soccer,” the newspaper records that have been digitized say otherwise– there are three varieties of football popularly played today.
Society (soccer), Gridiron (football), and Rugby.
Rugby is, per the researchers who get waaaaaaaay too serious about this stuff, the one that is closest to the original. The comedic fantasy novel “Unseen Academicals” had folks ask the “original football” types how accurate it was, and there was a kind of embarrassed silence and they sheepishly admitted it was pretty accurate when you figure in rule of funny like one of the players hulking out or the ball being moved by literal magic.
“Rugby is, per the researchers who get waaaaaaaay too serious about this stuff, the one that is closest to the original.”
Ha, You’re not wrong! Many folk fall into the 3. Those that care about Rugby League. (My Hand up)…This is the game explained to an American. Side Note- read with a sense of humour.
https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/mikemeehallwood/2020/05/25/americans-this-is-why-the-nrl-should-be-your-new-favorite-sport/amp/
I have never had any trouble understanding soccer and rugby. Cricket, on the other hand, will always elude me.
“Cricket, on the other hand, will always elude me.” And me. (it had its glory days in Australia in the 80’s). Now it’s just mired with ball tampering scandals and WAG (Wives and Girlfriends) tabloid news. One way to keep it interesting.
I’ve heard it said by more than one brit that Baseball can easily be explained to someone that knows cricket, but cricket can never be explained to someone that knows baseball.
As someone who cares about terms, I’ll admit that “football” does kind of make more sense for soccer. But what to name the Superbowl version then? That’s always held me up.
Foxfier’s “Gridiron” though… I like that – it makes the sport sound extra manly and american. Plus it has a good ring to it. “Hey did you catch the gridiron game?” vs “Hey, did you catch the american football game?”
It’s Gridiron.
Which I mostly learned because of an incredibly obnoxious cousin who couldn’t hear someone say “football” without correcting them to “American football” or “soccer” without demanding they say “football.”
Which is why the uncle who described rugby as “the guys who think football is for wimps and just laugh at soccer” started demanding that the cousin say “association football” and “gridiron.”
(Correcting name, went digging for the documentation.)
The sport we in the United States know as football is more properly called gridiron football, for the vertical yard lines that mark the field. Closely related to two English sports—rugby and soccer (or association football)—gridiron football originated at universities in North America, primarily the United States, in the late 19th century. On November 6, 1869, players from Princeton and Rutgers held the first intercollegiate football contest in New Brunswick, New Jersey, playing a soccer-style game with rules adapted from the London Football Association. While a number of other elite Northeastern colleges took up the sport in the 1870s, Harvard University maintained its distance by sticking to a rugby-soccer hybrid called the “Boston Game.” In May 1874, after a match against McGill University of Montreal, the Harvard players decided they preferred McGill’s rugby-style rules to their own. In 1875, Harvard and Yale played their first intercollegiate match, and Yale players and spectators (including Princeton students) embraced the rugby style as well.
https://www.history.com/news/who-invented-football
Oooh, the pre-toning-it-down gets called “Mob football,” goes back to the 12th century.
https://thechamplair.com/soccer/how-was-soccer-created/
After its ban in 1835, soccer would be played as a winter game between public schools such as Eton, Charterhouse, Winchester, and Rugby. Each public school had its own set of soccer rules – for example, some allowed the use of hands, while others did not.
In Rugby School, the handling of the ball was generally allowed․ And by the way, Rugby School is where the modern game of rugby was invented.
The significant differences in rules made it challenging for students to continue playing soccer after entering university. Students could only effectively play with their graduates from the same school.
In 1843, the University of Cambridge attempted to standardize the rules of soccer. The Cambridge rules were then spread by Cambridge graduates, some of whom started forming their own soccer clubs.
In October 1863, clubs from London and its suburbs agreed on the printed rules of soccer. These rules prohibited carrying the ball by hand.
At the same meeting, The Football Association (FA) was established as well, becoming the world’s first soccer association.
The rules were accepted in most of Britain, but not everywhere. Some clubs – especially Sheffield clubs – retained their own football rules.
And also, to be a bit on the nose:
Why Is Football Called Soccer In The US?
Throughout the world, the sport in question is known as football, but it’s called soccer in the United States and Canada. Why so?
After football started gaining popularity in Britain in the early 1800s, public schools and universities came up with their own versions of the game, with different rules and different names. One of them was “association football”, which is the soccer that we know today.
The term “soccer” was actually invented in Britain as an abbreviation of “association football”. The British have actually used “soccer” up until some 30 years ago. And in the 1960s-80s, “soccer” and “football” were interchangeable in Britain.
My three sons were good HS football, track and field discus and shot put men. Two of them played university, club rugby. I learned the rules watching it, and loved it.
They all started as little kids playing Saturday soccer in the Fall and Sunday Lacrosse in the Spring. Once in Winter basketball, they had a scratch game with an older girl’s team – the smaller boys held their own. OTOH at the same ages, I saw that the girls’ soccer teams were better than the boys’. Ergo, soccer is a girl’s game.
I aplogize.
Rugby refers to two types: Rugby Union (the type which started in the school Rugby), and Rugby League (an offshoot of Rugby Union- a faster game). Different codes with different rules. The link above explains League (not union).
League, like union players have no padding and no helmets. It’s faster and more physical than Union, (no stop start).
Funnily enough, USA will be hosting the 2025 Rugby League World Cup (with Canada).