Monday, February 18, 2008

What is really "Football"

The average National Football League game has a score of 21 points. Now when one looks at this, they realize that it is three touchdowns. There are three attempts to kick the ball for extra points plus the five kickoffs (opening kickoff, one kickoff after every score, second half kickoff). Each NFL game has an average of 125 plays during the game. out of those 125, 8 of them are kicks. Put all these statistics together, it shows that 6.4% of the plays in an NFL game are kicks. Why is it called football then? You only use your feet 6.4% of the time? Soccer players use their feet a majority of the 90 minutes that are played in a regulation soccer game. Their hands are used rarely, with the exception of a goalie who can use his hands inside his own goal and penalty box. So why do Americans call football "football"? Well it was originally derived from soccer, which was called football in Europe. In the early 1900s, North American football contained the use of your feet a lot. They had dropkicks, punts, field goals but side passes were only allowed, not forward passes so kicking was the basis of North American football. Since then, the name of the sport has stuck with it since then. So I think Commissioner Roger Goodell should think of a new title for the sport to avoid worldwide confusion.

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