Why do Americans call it soccer not football? You can blame England

Why Americans call the game of Football by the name soccer actually traces back to England, not the United States.

The term soccer originated in Britain during the late 1800s when multiple versions of football were being played across England. Two of the most popular were rugby football and association football. British slang shortened words or added nicknames to things. Rugby football became “rugger,” while association football was shortened to “assoc,” which later evolved into “soccer.” Thanks to the Brits, it stuck and was adopted.

When the sport arrived in the United States, Americans already had another rapidly growing sport known as football. While the NFL controls the marketplace as we know it today, much of the world now calls it American football.

To avoid confusion between the two sports, Americans continued using the British nickname to distinguish association football from their own version of football. Even though the two aren't the same with different rules, it all makes sense.

Britain gradually moved away from the slang term and returned to simply calling the sport football. Much of the rest of the world followed that lead, while the United States continued using soccer as the common name.

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Weird to think about, but true when it comes to how soccer got its name. There's a misconception that Americans invented the term. In reality, like other things in our culture, we got it from Europe.

However, even today, the term soccer is still occasionally used in Britain. But it's not the dominant term. Ironically, Americans are often criticized for using a word that originally came from British slang in the first place. As Casey Kasem would say, "Now you know the rest of the story." 

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