NFL Football Revealed on Squib Kick

Football vs. Football, World Cup Style

by Aaron Brazell on June 9th, 2006

Today began the World Cup and I got to come home and eat lunch in front of the Costa Rica - Germany game. Germany won, and that’s no big surprise. I’m not a huge soccer fan but I do enjoy the World Cup.

Since NFL football generally draws an American audience and this is an NFL blog, I thought I’d outline the key differences between the two “footballs”.

Soccer is played with the foot. While this may seem obvious to some, it might not be so obvious for others. Players can be penalized for using any part of their arms or hands, but can use their feet, knees, legs, chest or head to bat the ball around.

American Football is played with every part of the body except the foot. Actually, the only time the foot is used in American football is Kickoffs, punts, field goals and extra points. Points off kicks are awarded the lowest amount of points of any scoring opportunity in the game.

Soccer is played for 90 minutes. Well, not really. It’s an arbitrary 90 minutes that I don’t understand. A match could go for 92 minutes and 33 seconds and only the referee really knows.

American football is played for 60 minutes. 4 quarters, 15 minutes each. This is also an arbitrary 60 minutes because a 60 minute game often goes more like 190 minutes.

Soccer is a non-stop game. The game only slows down for corner kicks, place kicks, etc. Even then the clock ticks.

American Football is made up of individual plays that keep the clock moving. A play is called, the ball is snapped and, if a pass is dropped it is called incomplete and the play stops. If the ball is caught or if it is run and the player runs out of bounds with the ball, the clock stops. If a team calls one of several alotted timeouts, the clock stops. The pace of play also changes as, when a play end, most teams huddle up and defenses change defensive formations, etc.

Soccer offers few penalties. As an American, I am baffled by the fact that very little is illegal - as in the ref has to issue a penalty like a yellow card. Sure kicking the ball out of bounds means a corner kick or tossing the ball in, but generally there are really no penalties.

American football has tons of rules and penalties. Penalties for holding (illegally grabbing an opponent), unsportsmanlike conduct (such as pulling a Sharpie marker out of a sock in the endzone and signing a ball), false start (an offensive player jumping before the ball is snapped), etc. Seems like there are penalties for everything.

Soccer is generally a slow meandering game. The pace of the game is never break neck. It’s more leisurely.

American Football is smash mouth and brutal resembling the violence of rugby instead.

Soccer players all have relatively identical skills and abilities. Strikers, Defenders, midfielder - they all can pass long and all have similar athletic builds.

American Football players all have different skillsets. A linebacker might not be able to run with precision like ability through a line of defenders. A defensive tackle might not be able to throw a ball like a Quarterback. And a Quaertback will most likely be mauled if asked to play Right Guard.

There’s quite a lot of differences. No idea how they share the same name internationally. :) Enjoy the Cup, folks!

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