Quote:I bet I'm one of many Americans who find it almost incomprehensible how someone could find Football (Soccer, and where did that name come from?) more exciting than American football.
The rules of football were codified by the Football Association (FA) in 1863, and the name "association football" was coined to distinguish the game from other forms of football, specifically rugby football. The term soccer derives from the abbreviation of "association" to "assoc.", apparently.
The reason most of the world seems to find soccer more compelling than American football (the last World Cup was the sportin event with the most TV viewers of all time - more than any Olympics even though it is just one sport) is simply that it is usually a freer-flowing game. In American football, there are a lot of set plays and the ball is not in play for large chunks of the allotted time, whereas in football sometimes the action can be very fast.
Also, it is easier to have a kick around or a quick 5-a-side soccer match with just a ball, a relatively small playing area and, as the saying goes "jumpers for goalposts". So the game "catches on" more easily.
Perhaps the most famous player of all time, Pelé initially hated that name (not his real one - which if memory serves is Edson Arantes do Nascimento) because it reminded him of his poor upbringing. The name derives from the game of pelota, played on the streets of Brazil using a ball made from rolled up socks and the like, because they were too poor to have a 'proper' ball.