this game is AMERICAN RUGBY why call it amercan football??
101432
Because rugby and American football are two different games.\nBoth are played here.\nAmerican football ( the game with the pads and helmets ) is the more popular here. A lot of people here couldn't even tell you what rugby is.
68776
Rugby rules!\n\nSee and compare these two:\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rugby_union\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_football\n\nAnd you can die for your sport (though less frequent these days). From rugby in New Zealand:\n"The finding of ACC in the late 1980's that rugby cost the taxpayer over $20 million dollars per year in new and ongoing entitlement claims. There were, on average, 2 deaths, 1500 hospital admissions, and 20,000 Accident and Emergency consultations per year as a result of rugby."\n\nThis is taken from a page talking about what NZ is doing to work on preventing injuries, see:\nhttp://www.nzrugbynet.co.nz/NZRFU/Resource+Library/RugbySmart.htm\n\nI see NFL as more of a business in the USA than a sport. It's totally ruled by TV schedules and players earn and are therefore worth so much money that they need to wear monumental amounts of protection so that clubs get their return on investment.
618297
I can't speak to the comparison between the two because I have no idea what rugby is like.  Essentially...  The team with the ball has four chances (called "downs") to advance the ball ten yards.  If successful, they get four new downs to advance the ball another ten yards, and they try to keep going, ten yards at a time, until they reach the end zone (this is a "touchdown," which is worth six points plus a chance for one more if they kick a short field goal).  Probably 95-99 times out of 100 if the team hasn't advanced the ball ten yards after third down, they'll use fourth down to either punt it to the other team or attempt to kick a field goal (for three points).  Football is far too complex to fully explain here (check that wikipedia link that the other person left), but those are the most basic of the basics for the new football-watcher.
1015468
No. Anyone who says so hasn't played both. I played rugby through college and after, and there's a camraderie and spirit present in rugby that is absent in all big-time sports, football included. But, in terms of toughness, they're equal. Rugby players don't experience the high impact collisions football players do, and football players don't play without pads for 45 minute halves. \n\nRegarding some of the other postings:\n- Australia, NZ (except the mountains where they don't play rugby), and Fiji don't have freezing climates.\n- Getting your balls grabbed doesn't make you tougher. I do believe I would have quit rugby if I had my balls fondled. But hey, if that's your reason for playing, more power to you.\n- Anyone who tore their ACL, in football or rugby, would be carted off on a stretcher. Your ACL keeps your leg from bending double. That's important, whether you're playing football or not.\n- Football players play hurt just like rugby players. \n- Anyone commenting on how hard they hit in rugby has never played the game. The goal in rugby is to put your man down, not to hit him as hard as you can. It's illegal to hit without wrapping, or to leave your feet, and yardage is meaningless.\n\nI've played with guys from South Africa and Australia who said American football was crazy and that they'd never play it. The sports are different. I chose to play rugby, but I don't need to try to take something away from football players to make me feel better.
349038
because football is called soccer \nAmerican football is when we use our hands.. but we just call it football for short.
1074005
American football is a series of wildly high-speed collisions. I've played rugby as well but I also played high school football - which is a very big deal here in America. I was sidelined for one year by tearing two major knee ligaments and I also suffered two severe concussions. American football is a painful, difficult sport. Rugby is also both of these things, but in rugby there are fewer impact collisions and it is more of a tussling sport.\n\nBoth sports should be played with a great deal of protection. Rugby will not last without pads forever.
1186739
Because us Americans are getting tired of it and the English don't want our throw aways.\nNow, American football is a game you could love. Try your rugby. I love rugby and would be an avid fan if I lived in England.\nCan you get me tickets?
349555
Because they have a problem or course.  Americans like the sports they invented and just for this reason they think US sports are the best.  But Football the original, not American football, has greater dimensions than any other sport, and that is why the whole world knows it's the best.
703815
Both American football and soccer have their origins in varieties of football played in the United Kingdom in the mid-19th century, and American football is directly descended from rugby football.\n\nMcGill University athletes, who had learned rugby from the local British Army garrison, introduced the sport to the U.S. with a game against Harvard University in 1874. The game quickly spread to other Ivy League colleges.\n\nEncouraged by Yale University's Walter Camp, the schools began to adopt rules that would differentiate American football from rugby in the 1880s. The scrimmage was introduced in 1880 and the system of downs in 1882.\n\nBy the turn of the 20th century, football had become notoriously dangerous; 18 college players died in 1905 alone. Colleges responded with a series of rule changes to open up the game, most importantly the forward pass.\n\nThe game had achieved its modern form by 1912, when the field was changed to its current size, the value of a touchdown increased to 6 points, and a fourth down added to each possession. Originally dominated by the Ivy League, football soon captured the interest of colleges nationwide. By 1916, when the Rose Bowl game matching eastern and western teams became an annual event, football had developed a national following second only to baseball among team sports.\n\nProfessional football developed in the mill towns of Pennsylvania and the American Midwest in the early years of the 20th century. The NFL was founded in 1920 in Canton, Ohio. Professional football remained a largely regional sport of secondary importance until after World War II. Television broadcasts greatly enhanced NFL football's national appeal, and the pro game surpassed both college football and baseball in popularity in the 1960s. The first Super Bowl—between the champions of the NFL and the rival American Football League—was played in 1967, and the two leagues merged in 1970.
571114
Someone asked this question recently and here was my response:\n\nEasy to understand? Both Rugby and Football are difficult for someone you has never seen the game to follow. They need to be sitting with someone who has really played the game to get a good explaination. Rugby is a bit easier because the action follows the ball and the ball is easier to see, however football on tv is well explained with glowing yellow lines and announcers. Tie\n\nToughness- I'd love to watch an 80 minute rugby game in slow motion because man, these boys are bad! They give out some brusing hits and then just get up and do it again. The contact however is not head on like in US football. Rugby- it's better than watching a toughman contest\n\nSounds - BLUE 38, BLUE 38, football is a great game for the sounds, the crunch of the O line and D line colliding, the pop of a good hit, the linebackers and Qb giving audibles. Also include the music and cheerleaders.\n\nStrategy and depth of the game- rugby- like soccer- has little strategy compared to football. Football is mind over matter, the smartest, most together teams win, not the ones with the most talent.- Football\n\nRouting for the team- RUGBY - When you have an entire country behind you, that is something else. I love the 6 nations and rugby world cup for this. It is more exciting to watch New Zealand play Austrilia, US play Japan or even Fiji vs Tonga than Cleveland vs Tennesse.\n\n\nScore is tied 2 vs 2\n\nTie breaker - The SHOW! Watching (or playing) Football is filled with brilliant moments, the brusing sack, the interceptions, one handed catchs, pancake blocks, juke left juke right stiff arm then run for a 80 touchdown, leaping TD catchs, Punt + kickoff returns, and the Hail Mary Pass to win it. Sure it is a game that stops and starts more, but if you know what to look for, the wait is worth it.\n\nand the winner is: Football
559161
firstly "PLEASE CALL IT FOOTBALL NOT soccer"\n\nsorry yanks football in UK came first,and we play with it with the feet. your football is rugby over here.\n\nyou may get some enlightenment from the F.A. IN UK.
819854
The word "soccer" actually comes from England, where the   modern version of the game originated.\nIn England, there were two types of football: rugby football and association football. The slang term for rugby football was "rugger," and the slang for association football was "assoc." The word "assoc" gradually evolved into "soccer," which was much easier to say.\nWhen association football was introduced to North America, gridiron football (the type played by the NFL and in the Super Bowl) was already well established. To avoid confusion, Americans adopted the British nickname "soccer" for the new sport.\n\nGreg
289910
no matter what they say, rugby is only similar to american football in the sense that it has rules that no-one can understand and that are very hard to police because of the confusion with interpretation of the rules. Confused? the idea is simple. 15 players on each team and they are trying to get to the try line at the other end of the 100 meter field. 1 problem, 15 other giants with the same thing in mind will do anything to stop u. Easy as. watch an all blacks game from new zealand and you will see what rugby is like in its best form.
434450
There's two parts to this:\nThe origin of American football is in the history of the world's most popular sport: soccer. When soccer -- more universaly known as "football" (which of course makes sense because soccer players use their feet) -- participants decided to change their centuries-old game with restrictions such as the no-use of hand rules, people who disliked this broke away to create rugby. In the states we have created our own version of the game under the same old name "football" with more of a rugby style, the whole time forgetting why we call it that.\n\nThe word "soccer" actually comes from England, where the   modern version of the game originated.\nIn England, there were two types of football: rugby football and association football. The slang term for rugby football was "rugger," and the slang for association football was "assoc." The word "assoc" gradually evolved into "soccer," which was much easier to say.\nWhen association football was introduced to North America, gridiron football (the type played by the NFL and in the Super Bowl) was already well established. To avoid confusion, Americans adopted the British nickname "soccer" for the new sport.
431769
aussies play american football too mate, they call it gridiron over here.  \n\nAs far as the need for pads go, we hit harder and have more constant contact than either rugby or AFL.  The tackles in rugby and AFL are very soft by comparison.  I know, I've played.  They drag people down, they don't explode through them.  And there's no blocking in either sport.  Gridiron is the most physically demanding sport on the planet.
951655
why?\nok we play football(the sport in which u use ur FEET to hit the ball and not throw or jump on other people). we play ayo or awale(original version of mancala). we watch tv, play video games, other stuff. i love nigeria!!!\n\njust look at all these racist american answers up top. americans are so ignorant and sad....... i bet none of them have been to africa, or even south america......
748966
In England football (soccer) was the original ball sport played in many universities and colleges. The legend is that William Webb Ellis, while playing football at Rugby School, picked up the ball and ran with it this became a splinter-game called Rugby Football. When the English football league was established a number of these rubgy football clubs decided not to join in as the league did not recognise the use of hands as a legal method of play. Rugby became a popular alternative to football (soccer) but nearly all rugby clubs were called Rugby Football clubs. The game became immensly popular in America, but without a governing body to ensure uniform rules of play the nature of the American game began to significantly diverge from the Rugby played in England. Since the term 'Rugby' refers to the place where the rules originated it is understandable that the American sport adopted the word football to describe their similar but different game. In short American football was an offshoot of English Rugby football, which is itself an offshoot of the original game of football that the Americans call soccer. The word soccer is purportedly derived from "association football" and actually originates in England, but NOBODY in England calls football soccer at all, unless we have to dumb our programs down for American audiences. \n\nI also completely agree with you that football should only refer to the english game because (1) it is the original sport, (2) the American game has little connection whatsoever with the use of the foot, and (3) outside the US everyone calls this football, that's the entire world. I thought you guys believe in democracy? Billions watch not just world cup matches, but Champions League (the world's greatest sporting competition) and domestic competitions. Oh yeah, and American football sucks!