I was watching the Monaco V Chelsea game on ESPN 2 last week. I was noticing that the American commentators kept mentioning things like " oh chelsea are playing some good football here" Do you think that the word Football will gradually replace the word Soccer in North America?
No PS -- as you are new to Big Soccer (and welcome), let me just say that whenever you start a thread like this, be prepared to duck.
Actually thats a good question. However with the popularity of the NFL (National Football League) in America, I don't think the word 'football' will ever exclusively replace the word 'soccer'. I do believe though that we will start to refer to our football, the NFL, as 'American football' as many Americans have to do when traveling abroad, in order not to cause confusion. With soccer we will interchangeably use both 'football and 'soccer' to refer to the sport. Of course, we're talking about in the long-run with the average person. Australians I believe have the same problem and maybe worse. They play Rugby, Australian football (which is closer to rugby), and football/soccer.
Also, you have to remember that they are not "American" commentators. They do the PBP of the game from a Studio in the US, but it goes out on an ESPN international feed, so of the actual viewers of those games, many are not in the US. There are some rights issues and what not about who gets to show the games in which country, but they do the game for global benefit, not so much for the Yanks- most of whom aren't watching. Of the three main commentators they get- Mike Smith, Derek Rae and JP Dellecamera, only JP is an American. As for the topic, America already has a "football", and if you think you are getting the beer and a grill NFL fan to start saying that they follow "American" football- you are nuts. Ain't gonna happen. Just ain't. In the US, it will always be soccer, just as it will always be Calcio in Italy and not "football". It's "sokka" in Japan too.
thats a good question... i remember in the school i learn the english word for fussball (german for soccer) is football... and i everytime write and say football, football is football and in us is american football... and when they write in the newspaper, it´s american football, every time... but´s thats europe, but the game is more FOOTball than the american game... like in german FUSS (foot) BALL
I've sort of come around on this recently. I'll still never call it football but you'll see on FSW a lot that they'll interlace 'football' with 'soccer' and it doesnt' really bother me as much. It seems as though when they talk about the game it's 'soccer' when they're talking about the quality of play it's 'football.' I think slowly it's creeped into the American Soccer lexicon a little bit but it's still a very loaded word for a lot of reasons, including the sort of Euro/Latino Snobbery against the american game. God help us though if people start using 'footie' on a regular basis.
Here we have Rugby League Football (generally referred to as 'League'), Rugby Union Football ('Rugby'), and Australian Football ('Aussie Rules'). On the East Coast, when you say 'football' you mean League. In the south and west, it means Aussie Rules. Ideally, I'd like all the other football codes to be known just by their alternative monikers, and for the word 'football' to universally mean soccer. Of course, it will never happen. It helps that the main soccer broadcaster calls it football, and that's how I refer to it. And yes, I hate 'footie'. American football is just called gridiron over here.
It's all about context: If you're announcing a soccer game and talk about football, the viewers won't wonder why you've switched sports. so yeah, in that context, football could become more common. But until the collapse of the nfl and NCAA football schedule, the common usage of football will involve the american game. BTW Soccer is used elsewhere, as well. Originally an english phrase, and still gets used in the press occassionally (usually see it in the tabloids, don't know why).