American Football: How And Why Is It Such A Crucial Part Of American Culture?
It can almost feel a bit trite to say that “football is more than just a game” but that doesn’t make it any less true. After all, there is a reason why American football is so unique of a sport, while Americans are the only ones using “football” to mean this sport rather than soccer, and why American College football is so much more beloved and gathers so many more fans at every game than the NFL.
So, let’s delve a bit deeper and explore in detail the connection between American football and American culture.
How the rise of the NFL changed the way Americans see sports
During the late 19th century, American football was merely a fun pastime, much in the same way as baseball. Yet, as soon as the 20th century came along, American football not only surpassed baseball in popularity but it also began being viewed much more… seriously by the wider public. And, no, we don’t just mean it in the way George Carlin did, although that was also certainly not an invalid perspective.
More than that, however, it’s safe to say that the NFL was the first major American sport to truly capture the wider public’s attention as more than just a fun weekend pastime. Instead, the NFL became something people were aware of even if they didn’t care about the sport itself. It became an social event, something everyone knew and cared about, if not for its value as a sport, than for its presence as a cultural phenomenon.
NFL teams became emblems of their cities and states, NFL players became social influencers and stars, books and movies started being made about their stories, football started influencing fashion and social trends, and even politics started getting affected by what players and coaches had to say in interviews. Nowadays, you can expect to see the influence of American football anywhere from the stadium all the way to dating apps like Taimi.
American football vs Soccer football
This can mostly be seen as speculation, but it does seem likely that a big reason why American football became the dominant sport in the country is because it is truly unique and it is constantly being contrasted compared to soccer.
For those curious, the reason the two sports use the same term for their names is simple – for centuries before the mid-19th century, the word “football” didn’t denote a particular sport but referred to all sports that included a ball kicked or handled without the use of a racket, bat or a stick.
So, all sports such as rugby (from which American football comes), soccer, as well as the predecessors of volleyball, basketball, and so on were just called “football.” It was in the mid-19th century that different sets of rules started being developed for these sports, however, and they slowly started shaping into their own unique things.
The two big examples in England were Association Football and Rugby Football, with the two often nicknamed as soccer and rugger. By the end of the 19th century, both soccer and rugger started getting more and more popular worldwide and both were still technically called “football.”
Of these two sports, Americans certainly liked Rugby Football more and they used it as the basis of American Football. Granted, had the sport been named “American Rugby,” a lot of confusion could have been avoided down the line. Yet, rugby itself was still officially called “Rugby Football,” so naming the American sport “football” wasn’t in any way incorrect.
Around that same time, however soccer – or Association Football – became the more popular sport worldwide and so virtually (almost) everyone else in the world stopped using the world “football” for rugby and only kept using it for soccer (with the term soccer itself falling out of use).
In other words, it can be said that both Americans were 100% correct to name their sport “American football” and everyone else is correct to keep using their sport “football” too.
This does create another interesting question, however – is it possible that the conflicting names helped make American football even more of an integral part of American culture? Sports, such as basketball and baseball are also very much “American,” but they don’t contrast themselves with a corresponding European sport.
Is it possible that if baseball was named “American cricket” instead, it would have also became (or rather – remained) as integral of a part of American culture too?
College Football – the true cultural powerhouse
While the NFL is how American football is known worldwide and the NFL Super Bowl is the event that glues everyone to their screens every year, American College football is actually the sport that draws the biggest crowds to the stadiums every weekend.
Whereas the NFL averages about 65,000 people per game (similar to soccer football), particularly near the end of the season and the Playoffs, College football regularly draws over 100,000 people for regular weekend games between colleges. Yes, the NFL is what makes the news, but College football arguably has an even greater cultural impact “on the ground” – it’s much more so what people talk about in their everyday life and it tends to draw much more passion out of teams’ fans.
Whereas the NFL is the “national sport” that makes the news, College football is the local sport people tend to care about on a more personal level.
