| Quick, Argentina beat Brazil! What sport is this match referring to? A quick hint. This sport once ago used a severed head as part of the game. Name it!
If you actually thought of something even close to soccer, you are part of a minority of American sports fans. It is only here that when football is mentioned, people associate it with yards, goalposts, quarterbacks, etc. To people in most other countries, football means yellow cards, penalties, free kicks.
When it comes to the debate about which games has been around for the longer time, soccer beats football by having its roots traced as far back as 3000 years ago. In comparison, football pales, having started as early as 1879!
The Chinese, Romans, Greeks and Japanese all claim to have played the earliest forms of football. Nevertheless, Scotland and England have claim to being the fathers of modern soccer that has been around for centuries!
Nowadays, NFL players consider themselves as ‘soldiers’ who enter a warfield during every game. However, would you believe, soccer, once ago, was actually a game that was played by warriors? Kicking, punching, biting, and gouging were part and parcel of the game. The sport had crossed the limits of violence that Queen Elizabeth I of England had temporarily banned soccer, but the popularity of the sport meant that she had to give way. It’s only after soccer had been around for so long that the idea of American football come about.
Walter Camp, considered by many to be the father of American Football, combined soccer and rugby into one sport with a couple of changes to the rules when attending the Yale University during the late 1870s. Thus was born American Football!
In true American style, football gained wide acceptance and was made anew without any doubt that such an act may be considered arrogant. Today, you could be talking about Juventus and Chelsea in an American sports bar, and people would look at you as if you were talking about an alien from Mars!
While NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue was key in making the Super Bowl the biggest spectacle in the country, nothing quite captivates the world like a Soccer World Cup tournament.
Not surprisingly, NFL players have more fat wallets than pro soccer players despite these soccer players being much more popular around the world than football’s biggest stars. Such is the American lifestyle! |
