Your Comment should be straight to the point what do you think
should the name be Soccer or Football ?
There is some good information among the
answers so far, but also a lot of misleading and incorrect
statements.
Generally speaking the modern codes of football, including American
football, can be traced back to the numerous field and
cross-country ball games that were played throughout the British
Isles for centuries. Since at least the 1300s they have been known
as “football” and almost all were played with both hands and feet.
By the 1800s many public schools in the UK played some form of
football under the school’s own rules mostly managed by the
students. Football-style games spread throughout the world during
the early 1800s and in the US informal and unruly games of mob
football were widely played under rules based on custom and loose
agreement. By the late-1860s major US East Coast universities (like
Yale, Princeton, Harvard etc) played a more formalised football
related to the Association game (which became soccer) and the Rugby
game, with influences from other UK styles such as Winchester
football. During the 1870s there was increasing desire for
competition between the colleges without having to negotiate the
rules for every match. By the late 1870s a rules committee was set
up to codify the game, which was based in many ways on the early
Rugby style, but already included several differences. From this
point on US football evolved towards the game we know today, and
just like all the other codes (including Rugby Union, Rugby League,
Australian Rules, Gaelic football) it has always correctly been
regarded as “football”.
One point is worth making because it’s
often mentioned in these threads. It’s a common mistake to say that
Rugby developed out of soccer/Association football in some way.
Historically, things happened more the other way round. Almost
without exception the many styles of football played in the English
schools during the early 1800s allowed handling of the ball to some
degree. Even when the original Football Association was formed in
1863 to formally codify the game, their first written laws allowed
for a fair catch, which wasn’t changed until 1866. So when the
Association eventually banned all but the goalkeeper from handling,
this was a late development in football, well after the handling
game had been established. Soccer was not the original style. When
the Rugby Football Union published its own laws in 1871, codifying
the game that had evolved from the Rugby School version, the two
different styles became firmly established.
As is widely noted in writings and research on the history of Rugby
Union, the “birth of rugby” story set in Rugby School in the 1820s
and specifically crediting its origins to William Webb Ellis, is an
unsubstantiated myth. Appealing, but unfortunately without any real
evidence.