Born and initially raised in India, I wasn’t exposed to football till the second decade of my life. Once, we had settled in Singapore, the beautiful game captivated my interest and I became involved as both an armchair and on-the-field fan of the game. It’s really a very simple game...11 men chase a round ball around a rectangular field trying to kick/head it into a roughly 7 m by 2 m goal at one end of the field, while an opposing 11 attempts to do the same but at the other end of the field. Hence, football.
When I moved to the US of A 10 years ago, I became aware of an imposter, played using an oval ball very similar to a rugby ball. Still, 11 versus 11 on a rectangular field, only this time, most of the scoring (touchdowns) involved the use of hands not feet! Either running with the ball in hand or catching it as someone threw it at you. How someone came around to naming this game football evades me! Can someone please explain this to me?
Now, as I’ve just moved to Australia a few weeks ago, I am engulfed by a third kind of football, Aussie Rules. At least the Aussies make it clear, this is football by their rules, and the game actually involves scoring goals (not touchdowns) with your feet, a little bit like the roundball variety. So, there’s at least a logical explanation for why Aussie Rules Football actually is not a misnomer, unlike American Football.
By the way, why do we have three (at least that many I am aware of) “footballs” but no imposters for basketball, tennis or cricket? So everyone else was clever enough to name their sports uniquely except the hapless lads that invented American and Aussie Rules football? Hmm...
3 comments:
"By the way, why do we have three (at least that many I am aware of) “footballs” but no imposters for basketball, tennis or cricket"...
Ummh... have you heard of baseball? Wouldn't that be a sort of impostor for cricket (or viceversa)? :)
Who knows why those crazy Americans call it football??? I hope you are settling in alright down there. Just remember though, nobody can be as wonderful as your Nashvillian friends!!! But it did take Simon a good 6 months or so before he had people to grab a beer with. Just wait, it'll come. That's the crappy part of moving somewhere new. Thankfully this time around I had Marius, so I was dumped into a whole Mommy social circle, which really made the transition easier for me. You can get a dog maybe??? You'll have to clean poop just like a baby, so there's not a whole lot of difference, and you'll meet other dog owners at the dog park! Hey, it's just a thought! But then again I've had about 3 beers tonight and am a little lit!
yeah, sary...baseball is a poor adaptation of cricket. but at least those folks were creative enough to give it a unique name.
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