Football/Soccer

An Internet-blogger muses about the global weight of the football/soccer terminology conflict controversy and how it affects our attitudes towards unified sports!

Soccer is a popular ball-kicking sport in all parts of the world but not as much in America. Football is a very popular ball-throwing sport in America. Soccer is often called 'football' in other parts of the world, but in America, 'football' refers to the game involving throwing/handling a ball, not kicking a ball! This terminology-controversy is symbolic of modern globalization-consciousness intrigue, to be sure, in our age of media and entertainment. So I decided to offer up one last vignette, this one's about a pensive Internet-blogger named Ajay Satan musing about the dialogic significance of the modern global football/soccer terminology controversy.

I thought it'd be right for our ornamental Christmas/consumerism season, so I hope you like it.

Cheers and Happy Holidays (signing off),

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"At the turn of the new millennium, the world had become much more consumerism and media oriented, and human beings wanted to explore the imaginative contours of access to entertainment and social activity. Facebook, the social networking website, and ESPN, the American sports-TV network, became very very popular. Suddenly, everyone was thinking about the jargon and terms that made global networking feel like home! However, there was one obstacle to this cool progress. This obstacle came in the form of the conflicting terminology regarding two very different sports --- American football and world soccer. You see, soccer was called 'football' by most of the world, but as the NFL (National Football League) developed and flourished in American media, Americans regularly preferred to use the term 'soccer' to refer to the sport that the rest of the world called 'football.' This was a dilemma, since American football and world soccer are so darn different --- one involves team-elegance with kicking and passing a round ball towards a goal, while the other involves moving an offense against a defense down a field by throwing/passing and running with an oblong ball!"

"Soccer had a proud tradition and evolved from older and more ancient ball-kicking games from early civilizations. By the time the official world regulatory board of international soccer, FIFA, had developed, the world was enjoying international 'World Cup' soccer tournaments on TV, featuring iconic and legendary soccer superstars like Diego Maradona, Luis Figo, and Johan Cruyff. World soccer had become a thing of great beauty and energy, and fans wanted to access world soccer games on cable-TV by the time the new millennium came! The UEFA Champions League tournament, inviting the best teams from clubs in England (Premier League), Italy (Serie A), and Spain (La Liga), became very hip and popular among young fans of soccer watching the elegant and thrilling game from home on TV. Soccer stars were receiving heavy endorsements and salaries, especially in European clubs, and soccer was emerging as a dominant sport in almost every part of the world --- except America! This changed, of course, when the US women's national soccer team took great investments in training and recruiting and managed to win a whopping 4 World Cup titles. However, soccer remained a dominantly male sport, and Europeans, Africans, and South Americans, and even Asians and Aussies preferred soccer to American football."

"In America, the NFL (National Football League) had become a well-functioning mega-machine! NFL ad-revenues generated immense profits, and NFL quarterbacks (QBs), the team offense-leaders responsible for throwing/passing the ball to gear the offense, became household names across America. The Goliath-like Tom Brady, marshaling QB of the multiple Super Bowl title winning New England Patriots was almost a god. The Super Bowl saw the best teams from the two US leagues of professional (televised!) football, the AFC and the NFC, meet and try to defeat each other for the coveted Vince Lombardi trophy. Super Bowl TV-ads became so synonymous with the American 'ethos' that companies scrambled to buy the expensive time-slots and produce/offer exceptional and symbolic product-ads and endorsements. If you mentioned the word 'football' to an average American in the new millennium, they'd tell you about the NFL QB Tom Brady, not the Portugal and Real Madrid (La Liga) Euro-soccer star Luis Figo. Football in America was very easily mentally/visually linked to throwing, not kicking, the ball..."

"What is a cheerleader to do in this new global environment? Should a cheerleader trumpet the kicking elegance of world soccer or the throwing skills involved with American football? There are countless attractive and skilled cheerleaders all over the world today and fans likewise who dress up to fancy-dress cheer on their teams (be it for world soccer and the World Cup or American football and the Super Bowl!). An NFL cheerleader for a popular team may be very well-paid, and likewise, a paid cheerleader or female 'angel' or 'fan' of world soccer may be tied to team or star-endorsements on television. Sports is a global business in the modern millennium of networking and consumerism and fancy capitalism. What would a random gorgeous cheerleader say, therefore, about this globalization challenging term-conflict between 'soccer' (kicking game) and 'football' (throwing game)? Sure, this is fun controversy, but at some level, it can get offensive! A fan of world soccer may take great offense if a fan of American football insists that 'football' refers to the throwing...not kicking...game!"

"My name is Ajay Satan. I'm an idealistic democratic Algerian-American and Internet-blogger and am interested in modern sociological trends. I post on the Internet about modern socialization values and ethos and how anti-globalization terrorism challenges our modern optimism towards globalized consumerism/capitalism. You might call me the online version of Thomas Nast! I like to pose in special and fun poses for my posts and stories reflective and representative of modernism itself. I comment on things like the NYSE-Euronext, TrumpUSA, and the United Nations, and of course, Facebook. I also make amateur art or politicized doodles and cartoon-images of figurines and 'avatars' symbolic of modern millennium imagination. I'm deeply interested in this 'football/soccer' terminology controversy in the modern global climate! Who will win this contest of jargon --- fans of world soccer or American football? Should fans of world soccer retain the social right to refer to their sport as 'football' while Americans cheer the heavily-profitable and media-drenched (and well-developed) throwing-game of NFL football?"

"I've been thinking about this terminology controversy a great deal. Now that the shopping-season (holidays) are upon us and everyone's imagining consumerism ornamentation, we might think about how entertainment is so linked to everyday life and world culture! Everyone likes shopping online and buying Christmas gifts and having it shipped across the world with the conveniences of the Internet! Everyone appreciates the amenities of world cable-TV. Whether you're a fan of world soccer or American football, capitalism in the new millennium has you seriously thinking about the nuances and complexity of 'networking jargon.' I'm from Algeria, but I'm a US citizen. I went to an Ivy League school. I appreciate the social weight of networking-themed dialogue (e.g., Facebook, United Nations, etc.). I'm a fan of world soccer but also NFL football! How should I feel about this jargon conflict and how it will affect global media/marketing?"

"I've decided to dress up as a vigilante and adopt the name 'Shadow' to post on the Internet about free-speech ideology and the problem of censorship/pornography in this new millennium. As the 'superhero' Shadow, I can talk more openly about the complications that arise with new era networking issues such as multiculturalism. How do ethnic minorities in America feel about the 'football/soccer' terminology controversy worldwide, and how does it affect their perspectives on the presentation of cheerleaders as advocates of modern entertainment and marketed athletics (e.g., NFL, World Cup)? Should I, as the hero 'the Shadow' (a democracy-advocate) feel idealistic about what the media can do to normal networks and socialization consciousness? How will TV affect me personally? Am I a commentator of the media or an 'offspring' of the media?"

"Depending on who wins the football/soccer terminology controversy, we'll see different 'angles' in media and marketing towards sports in the new millennium! We'll see very different attitudes towards the global access to worldwide sports and perhaps even the Olympics! Americans dominate in capitalism arguably and persuasively, but today's global community is actively involved in using media and networks to immerse themselves in this new pro-globalization capitalism 'aesthetic.' This is a new world of great ornaments, and the football/soccer terminology controversy will be considered quite fun and funny, so we need to respect all the norm-based biases on all sides of this ironically very important argument!"

TRUMP: Sports is a real enterprise!

BRADY: I'm psyched about Patriots on television.

TRUMP: You know, in Europe 'football' is actually soccer.
BRADY: Well, we Americans know 'football' involves handling the ball.

TRUMP: Right; those Euros love kicking balls!
BRADY: This argument will subside with the Olympics.
TRUMP: Yeah, the Olympics have always promoted peace.
BRADY: We're wary of globalization threatening terrorism now, Mr. President.

TRUMP: Sure, Tom; your success in the Super Bowl excites Americans optimistic about humanity.
BRADY: Entertainment and media can help us forget about the 'sores' of terrorism!
TRUMP: That's why we need to be respectful towards 'terminology' biases...
BRADY: Sure; this is the Age of Diaries.

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