Scott Jones joined Dave on the show asking why do we call it soccer and most of the world calls it football?
Here’s viral video of “Monty Pyton” great, John Cleese, stating the obvious.
This is not a new video, but is getting a lot of new attention since the World Cup started again.
Americans call it soccer because the word was actually invented in England. In the 1880s, British university students created slang nicknames for two sports by shortening them and adding “-er”: they called rugby “rugger” and association football “assoccer,” which eventually became “soccer”.
While the term eventually fell out of favor in the UK in favor of “football,” Americans held onto “soccer”, according to Yahoo Sports!
- The Naming Conflict: When the sport gained popularity in the US in the late 19th century, American football was already well-established and had claimed the name “football”.
- Avoiding Confusion: Calling the round-ball game “soccer” was simply the most practical way to differentiate it from “American football”.