"Soccer" is an English term!

[Spectre]

No we play on a oval with a maximum of 22 players with only 18 allowed on the field at any one time. We don't have to have a defence team, a offence team, and a special team (about 46 players all up I believe) all cause the boys get a little tired. We also don't need tons of padding because our footballers are real men and play a real mans game And the field of play is a fair bit bigger.

Just as an aside, when I was a school we had to do some research on the who the fittest athletes were and guess who came out on top, Soccer players

Also I would like to apoligise to the OP, if this is getting on your wick just tell me to pull my head in.

Football(Australian) is a contact sport. Football(proper) is an impact sport. The pads aren't for protection as much as for a weapon. Imagine trying to tackle a Buick.

[BCTrucker]

I love the game of Handegg, but never could quite figure how the name Football described it!!!!!

[sanddog28]

I love the game of Handegg, but never could quite figure how the name Football described it!!!!!

This again goes back to the original use of association football and rugby football, when we (the yanks) started playing our own version of football primarily in the colleges it was created as a hybrid of soccer and rugby. This game actually resembled soccer football more than rugby but with considerably more contact, and some use of handballs. Problem was that each school had its own rules so when they came together to create the rules they were based more on rugby. So then we had American Football and like everything else it was shortened back to be called simply football.

[CDNSushi]

Urban legend I heard was that the reason why American football is called "football" even when it's not played with the feet, is due to the size of the ball, which is a "foot" long... Anyone ever heard this?