If you’ve ever watched a football game and wondered, “Why is it called football when players mostly carry the ball with their hands?” you’re not alone.
I asked myself the same question, and the answer turned out to be far more interesting than I expected. The name has very little to do with kicking the ball and much more to do with the game’s origins.
In medieval England, “football” referred to games played on foot, distinguishing them from sports played on horseback.
As different versions of football evolved, rugby football eventually gave rise to American football, which retained the name.
Understanding that history makes the modern game’s seemingly confusing name make a lot more sense.
Before we dig into the history, let’s look at where the term “football” actually came from and why it survived through centuries of change.
So It’s Not About Kicking the Ball?
Exactly. When I first learned this, it completely changed how I thought about the name.
Most people assume football must be called football because players kick the ball, but that’s not actually where the term came from.
In medieval England, “football” was used to describe games played on foot, meaning participants ran on the ground rather than rode horses.
That distinction mattered because many sports associated with the upper classes were played on horseback, including activities similar to modern polo.
So the “foot” in football originally referred to the players being on their feet, not the ball being at their feet. Once you know that, the name suddenly makes a lot more sense.
Where the Name “Football” Actually Came From
When I started looking into the history, I found that “football” originally wasn’t a single sport at all. It was a broad term for various ball games played on foot across Britain during the medieval period.
These games were often chaotic, had few standardized rules, and varied from town to town.
- These early games were rough and local, with almost no shared rules. Every town, school, and club made up its own version, which made it nearly impossible to match up against outsiders.
- By the mid-1800s, English schools and clubs wanted one rulebook. On October 26, 1863, representatives from several London clubs met at the Freemasons’ Tavern and founded The Football Association (The FA), the world’s oldest football governing body. (The National Football Museum has the original 1863 laws.)
- Not everyone agreed. The clubs that wanted to keep handling and running with the ball broke away and eventually formed the Rugby Football Union in 1871. The ones who banned carrying the ball became “association football.”
- So one medieval word split into two organized sports, and both kept “football” in the name.
The Rugby Connection (Why We Carry the Ball)
So if football started as a kicking game, why does the American version let you run with the ball tucked under your arm? Credit a teenager.
The story goes that in 1823, at Rugby School in England, a student named William Webb Ellis grabbed the ball mid-game and just took off running with it. Nobody knew the rules for that yet, but the idea stuck.
Historians actually treat this tale as more legend than fact, since it was written down decades later, but the school leaned into it and the sport took its name from there.
That moment split rugby football off from the kicking-only game, and rugby is the direct ancestor of the football I watch on Sundays.
Why do Americans Say “Soccer”?
Here’s the twist I love throwing at people. Americans get teased endlessly for saying “soccer” instead of “football,” but the word is actually British.
Back in the 1880s, students at Oxford had a slang habit of chopping words down and adding “er” on the end.
They took “association football,” the formal name for the game, shortened “association” to “assoc,” trimmed that down to “soc,” and turned it into “soccer.”
It’s the same playful trick that gave rugby the nickname “rugger.” The word was common in England for decades before Americans fully adopted it.
So the next time someone gives you grief for saying soccer, you can let them know with a straight face that England invented the word first.
How American Football Was Born
The first game of American football happened on November 6, 1869, when Rutgers played Princeton. Honestly, it looked more like soccer than anything I’d recognize today.
Over the next decade, American colleges borrowed pieces from both soccer and rugby and stitched them into something new.
The real turning point came around 1880, when a Yale player named Walter Camp, now called the Father of American Football, swapped rugby’s messy scrum for the line of scrimmage and the system of downs.
Forward passing was finally legalized in 1906.
But here’s the key part: because this brand-new sport grew straight out of the European football family, it simply inherited the name. Football it was, and football it stayed.
Wrapping It Up
So there’s the answer I went looking for: football is called football not because of the kicking, but because “foot” once meant any game played on your feet rather than on horseback.
That medieval word split into association football, which we call soccer, and rugby football, which crossed the Atlantic and became the American game I watch every Sunday.
The name simply came along for the ride.
What I love about this is how a word from 800 years ago still shapes the arguments fans have today. History is sneaky like that.
Got a friend who insists “soccer” is an American word? Send them this article and settle the debate once and for all.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who Officially Named the Sport “Football”?
No single person did. The name grew naturally from medieval English usage long before any rulebook or governing body existed.
Is Soccer Older than American Football?
Yes. Association football was codified in 1863, while American football’s first game came later, in 1869, evolving from rugby.
Why is the Ball Shaped Like an Oval?
Early footballs were inflated pig bladders, which naturally formed an oval. Rugby and American football kept that shape over time.
