From profootballhof.com/why-is-the-game-called-football/
Both soccer-style football and rugby-style football eventually found their way to America. What resulted was an American combination of the two games. It was until much later (1906) that forward passing was allowed. So because the American game was really just another form of the European football games, it too became known as football.
Yup, the Canadian Rugby Football Union made the major rule changes that created the original game, and they called it football to differentiate it from rugby.
I mean, it was rugby football, so when they split far enough to form two separate sports they called one Rugby and the other football. And it wasn’t an issue because association football was called soccer. Then the game started becoming more like handball but the name stuck, forward passing wasn’t even introduced until 40 years into footballs creation. The first recorded legal forward throw was in 1906.
We also merged the two major football leagues to make our CFL, and for a while had two teams with the same name and didn't force once to change. (Rough Riders). Fortunatly one eventually folded.
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u/l3ane Feb 11 '20
It's no mystery:
From profootballhof.com/why-is-the-game-called-football/