Since I can remember, football has been the name of my favorite sport. As a child it always was called football. Then I move to the States and quickly learned that football was a sport played with an egg shaped ball and players with helmets handling the ball with their hands. And the sport I have known since birth as ‘football’ is called soccer. Confusing right? Well, perhaps not but it is definitely inappropriate.
The american version of football there is minimal foot to ball contact. Apart from some field goals kicks and returns the ball is hardly kicked. Furthermore, the shape of the ball is not even round making it impossible for foot control, and only manageable with the hands. With all these contradictions I ask myself over and over again why this is continued to be called football. Perhaps a more appropriate name would be American football or even Handegg.
The international community knows this sports as football, but americans refuse to adopt this international consensus. Like the metric system, the Kyoto Protocol, football is another example, though minor, of how American culture remains uninterested of international agreement.
Though this post is not all about football it is a great first step in starting this blog, and to show how football can be relative to other matters.
