gg wrote: 1. Whatever the dominant football code is in a nation, they end up calling it simply Football. For instance, in Britain, where the dominant code is “soccer”, the game is called Football. Same in Italy, Brazil etc. But in Australia, where Australian Football is the dominant code, the game there is just called Football. Therefore, games like Rugby, Rugby League and “Soccer” are called by other names. As in, Rugby, Rugby League and Soccer are STILL football, but they’re REFERED TO as Rugby, Union, Rugby League, League, and Soccer. Same in the USA. Because American Football is the dominant code, “soccer” tho STILL football, is REFERED TO as Soccer. In the UK, where Soccer is the dominant game, the game is refered to as Football, not “soccer”. But games like American Football and Australian Football are refered to as American Football and Australian Football, or, Gridiron and AFL.

2. The term “soccer” is derived from the official name of the sport, which is 'Association Football'. The 'soc' in Association being the prefix for Soccer.

3. The game of Association Football did not strictly get originated in the UK. It’s true a very very close form of the game was played in ancient China. However, the rules for Association Soccer, the field markings, number of players, etc etc, all this was officially tabled in England and therefore Association Football itself originates in England.

4. Likewise, it is mistaken that Australian Football originated from Rugby, Soccer or Gaelic, but the same thing. The Aborigines in Australia (before colonization) were playing a form of this game long before, hundreds of years, and when the early settlers were here they kind of stole the idea and put together some rules etc, borrowing some ideas from Gaelic along the way, and hence Australian Football.

5. I have played American Football, Soccer, Rugby League, and Australian Football in my years. And it is my opinion that of all those games that American Football is by far the most superior game. The most complex, the most fun, the more violent. Rugby League is a stupid game in the rules. It’s a game that has really distanced itself from the close similarities it had with Rugby Union only as far back as 1960s, but it is also copying a lot of ideas from American Football, but is somewhat trapped in a limbo of on-field rules, kind of a lost destiny, still trying to find itself. It’s not as tough as American Football. People don’t realize that in American Football it’s brutal collisions, and everyone focuses on the ball-runner. So defenders really race up to kill the ball-runner, they can isolate him. Whereas in Rugby (Union or League), because the ball is passed around all the time, the defenders actually SLIDE cross-field making sure they are 'tagging' their opposite number. Players cannot race up and isolate a runner, so the collisions are generally less so because they’re always back-pedalling and sliding cross-field until defender and eventual ball-carrier are only a meter apart and can then make some form of a tackle, which is often just a normal tackle. You DO see huge collisions in Rugby League often, when a ball-runner just runs up into a wall of defenders, but that alone isn’t more vicious than American Football, even with the padding the hits are more brutal. In fact, the padding and helmets hurt MORE than just flesh on flesh. Australian Football and Soccer are for more skillful sports, requiring greater hand-eye-foot co-ordination at all times. Also a lot more stamina is required. A typical Australian Football player will have run many many kilometers (or miles) during the course of a game. Can’t remember the exact figure, probably 20 kilometers. It really does wear you out, you need to have great stamina to play that game, and a lot of skill catching and kicking and hand-passing the ball around in a peripheral vision. However, unfortunately, the AFL who runs the Australian Football code, have in the last few years, really softened the game up, changing rules and the game is really weak now in regards to physical collisions. It’s more like soccer/basketball now, with all these rules outlawing hits etc. It’s played on a huge oval field too, so there’s even less and less physical contact than some years ago...back then, it was really brutal as players could hit players really violently on their blindside, due to that peripheral field. Also, lots of soccer-like diving and appealing for penalties is creeping into the game now. I really am angry that the AFL has gradually made this game the way it is now. It used to kind of like Ice Hockey, with the brutal hits and violence. But they also outlawed punching! So if there’s an angry moment, players will just grab each others shirts and wrestle around a bit. But before all this softness, there used to be really ugly Ice Hockey like incidents of players being taken out with violent hits and massive all-in brawls.

Overall...I can never watch enough American Football, really beautiful to watch, and it was much better to play IMO, always involved in every play, blocking and whatnot probably the best/fun part of the game. I can’t watch Rugby League at all anymore. I can only watch my favorite AFL team play, otherwise it’s a bore and soft-cock fest. Soccer I could never really get into. And Rugby Union is probably the better of the two Rugby codes to watch.

DicKin CydeR wrote: America national sport is called baseballs. It very similar to our sport, shurik, where we take dogs, shoot them in a field, and then have a party.

Etain wrote: I should have clarified that you’re both sort of right if he (Zirnitra) is arguing origin....not if he’s arguing that rugby is exactly like American Football but just a different name.