Does the term "football" belong to Europe or America?

After attending a school that has soccer as a fall sport instead of football; I've become more appreciative of the sport of soccer. This brings me to my reason for writing this article. The topic I've heard come up several times while I've attended USAO, is changing the name of soccer to football, and changing the name of American football to something else. At first I was one of those people who said it was a ridiculous idea. I thought the audacity these people who are in America who are not from here to say we should change the name of American football was outrageous. However, this got me thinking. I did some research and I discovered this notion has some validity and reason behind it. Soccer has been a sport much longer than American football. There have been records of games that resemble soccer being played during the Han Dynasty in China. Modern American football started in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. If this isn't reason enough, soccer is actually played with your "foot", hence the name "football." In American football, the only player that consistently uses his foot is the place kicker, punter, and occasionally the quarterback or running back for teams who use the "quick kick" to catch the opposing team off guard. Aside from that, no one else uses their feet. I grew up with the sport of football, and I barley knew soccer existed until I went to college. I am still hesitant about changing the name of American football, but, I wanted to inform everyone that there are some good points for the sport of soccer. Now I want to bring up a point in defense for American football. During the 20th century, many people in Britain referred to European football as, "soccer." This continued until 1980, when many of them used the names, "soccer" and "football" interchangeably. To sum it all up, the whole reason americans call it soccer is because of the British. Both sides have valid arguments. Personally, I think I'll stick to calling American football, "football" and European football, "soccer." It's what I grew up on and I'll raise my kids on. But, I do believe knowing both sides of the story from two different views is important in making a decision. I imagine americans will continue calling their football, "football" and Europe's football, "soccer." It's just how the cookie crumbles.