Jun 13 2007
Thierry Henry Wants to Call It “Throwball”
In this ESPN interview with Phoenix Suns star (and former footballer) Steve Nash, Thierry Henry has decided he wants to give the gridiron game a new name…
SN: Does it bother you that North Americans call it soccer?
TH: No. You know what bothers me? That they call American football football. Because they throw the ball. They don’t even play with their feet.
SN: I wish we were as smart as the French. So what do you think they should call it?
TH: Throwball.
SN: How about airball?
TH: Airball? I don’t know. I just know it’s weird to call it football.
You know what’s weird? That Steve Nash wishes he were smart like a Frenchman. How much intelligence does it take to wave a white flag, anyway?
First off, Thierry, they do play with their feet in the NFL. It’s called running. They do that in rugby football, too. You’re aware that it’s called the Rugby Football Union, yes?
Second, where’s your sense of history, man? You’d think a star as big as yourself might take just a little time to understand the history of his own sport and how different games broke off and evolved…
Well, actually, no. You wouldn’t think he’d want to learn any of this, would you? After all, TH14 isn’t paid to be a historian. He’s paid to be a footballer, and I’m sure he’s not alone. How many NFL and college football stars know anything before, say, Jim Brown or Vince Lombardi’s Packers? How many Premier League stars understand how the Westminster School cloisters shaped their game? How many current rugby stars know how the union and league codes came about?
My guess would be zero. Look across any form of football, and you’ll find a bunch of simple jocks for whom ancient history is Joe Namath guaranteeing a Super Bowl victory, or Southampton upsetting Manchester United in the FA Cup final. They’re not at all curious about the evolution of the games they play. They just want to work to get better at them. History is for people who don’t get paid as much as they do, and because it bores people so much, these misunderstandings will linger long after we’re gone.
If William Webb Ellis had Henry’s attitude, would we even have rugby — and, by dint of that, American football — today?
Think about it.
(Spotted on The Offside.)
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why are you drifting away with your view, the comments were originally about “foot” ball.
i hope you can prove me wrong with your history lesson as i am very interested to know how your take on football relates to the technical use of your feet with acheiving the desired objective of scoring a point, try, TD etc what ever you want to call it.
european hand ball should be named football, so should volley ball with your view. i can go on with a list of sports (without the boring history lesson) that all fit under your banner of what is football, that is a game that you use your feet, to move the ball for a desired outcome.
respect to your blog but write constructive arguements that are meaningful.
your points are not valid but you have succeeded with getting attention and a comment to your post.
JRR - As far as I’m concerned all the football codes have a right to be called football, simply because they have all evolved through time, in their own market as ‘football’. Why should Americans or Australians or Canadians or New Zealanders stop calling their game football (something they have done since its establishment) simply because there is another game with the same name.
Soccer is not the most popular spectator sport in these markets and that is something soccer fans need to come to terms with. I am a fan of soccer but I lose patience with supporters of the game who tell me that my football, should be known as Aussie Rules.
And as far as tradition is concerned, I have read on a few occassions that football (i.e. soccer) was called football because it was played by foot (i.e. by peasants, lay people) as opposed to games played on horseback. If this is true, aren’t all the footballs just as entitled to use the word. And if we were looking for more ‘appropriate’ terms, wouldn’t soccer be known as kickball? And one last thing, for those ‘football-fans’ that can’t stand the word soccer (I’m not quite sure why), check your facts before you discredit the word as an Americanism…it was a word coined by soccer-playing British.
JRR: You must be new here. Go click on the “About This Blog” and “Know Your Football Codes” links at the top of the page. Then you might get where I’m coming from.
the issue then relates to which game came first - because if the rules for football were developed based on the round ball then where is the
relevance with other codes using the same name for their sport.
i think TH issue is to do with that, it is discrediting the name not the sport.
as far as “soccer” goes, we are a country that plays “football” - if you are a historian then you will remember we officially changed the national games name from soccer to football - hence FFA aligning oursleves to the rest of the world.
personally i feel what ever you want to call your game needs to reflect what happens in that sport (or atleast differentiate it from other sports) for this reason, “soccer is football” and other codes using the name are harming their global popularity.
i am not putting down the validity of the other sports, different games, different skill. maybe the global appeal of the world game is because so many countries in the world identify football for what it is, and the other codes that use the same name are being forced to change their rules that they have developed just so their elite athletes can play international level games. (afl/gaelic)
do you see where i am going with this.
the name means nothing, what it represents is important. thats the arguement, and these other codes should realise they will never become global by hijacking the name of the world game.
(rugby union is international, but it has a long way to go before it can even come remotely close to an organisation - FIFA - that has more members than the UN)
so from that perspective i see alot more relevance to credit a name to a certain game than another.
if its a matter of choice then you can call it what ever you like, because at the end of the day, its how you identify it that brings meaning to you.
forgot to comment on kick ball
i love it
How much intelligence does it take to wave a white flag, anyway?
Ah, nothing like a bit of anti-French cliché is there?
Anyways, I’d guess that the point Henry is making is that they don’t use their feet directly on the ball. It is a silly thing to say, but I’m not sure that Henry was being entirely serious.
Anti-French cliché is a way of life on this blog. Get used to it.
JRR yes I see where you come from re: calling Aussie Rules/American Football etc. simply football in foreign makets
HOWEVER
Then, by your own rules, shouldn’t everyone in Australia/American call Association football soccer, and isn’t soccer damaging their name by trying to pass off as football there (where it isn’t, and hasn’t been, known as football)?
AND
Whilst I can see your point of view I disagree. The only time I ever call football Aussie Rules or Australian football or AFL is for clarification reasons.
ON ANOTHER NOTE
“the other codes that use the same name are being forced to change their rules that they have developed just so their elite athletes can play international level games.”
Aussie Rules’ international aspect has been growing at a huge rate. In fact in two years time South Africa is expected to have 20,000 Australian footballers in 2009 from around 2,500 in 2006.
International Rules (the hybrid game you speak of) is argued by some fans of both codes as a waste of time. I agree somewhat, but I think the exposure my game gains in Ireland as a result, and the gaelic players ’stolen’ by the AFL as a result makes everything worthwhile. Whether ethically correct or not, most of us want to see out own code flourish, even if this is at the expense of other games. (It’s a little like footy fans who argue the Grahams and the Roccas in the NFL are bad for footy, but as a recent Philadelphia newspaper showed, it also spells exposure for footy - both the AFL and USAFL). Oh and the IR series has been axed, or at the least is on hiatus.
ONE LAST THING
“if you are a historian then you will remember we officially changed the national games name from soccer to football - hence FFA aligning oursleves to the rest of the world.”
A historian would also note that the A-League season in held in the Rugby/AFL offseason. I wonder why?
The International Rules series isn’t dead yet. Check the new “Dave @ The FanHouse” section in the sidebar for a link.
you must be retarded if you think football should be called football because you run…you run in every sport dumbass. haha shows how much you know about sports!