While different countries may debate as to what sport should really be called football,

the reality is the word football describes a broad family of sports,

all of whom have a very similar background in origin.

Just like species with a common ancestor can evolve in

ways where they look totally unlike each other. So too did the football sports

evolve from a common ancestor into very different forms today. Learn more about the various sports we call football on this episode of Everything Everywhere

Daily. Book your ticket to happiness with Sun Express Airlines. This episode is sponsored by Audible.

This episode is sponsored by Audible.com.

If you're interested in the intersection of sports and society, my recommended audio book is The Age of Football, Soccer and the 21st Century, by David Goldblatt.

The Age of Football explores soccer's vital role in our social, political, and economic lives, its

connections to social discord in the Middle East and political divisions in Europe, and

the reasons behind the surprising surge in popularity in China, India, and the United States.

You can get a free one month trial to Audible and two free audio books by going to

Audible Trial.com slash Everything Everywhere or by clicking on the link in the show notes.

The football, generally speaking, is a broad category of games which have most of the following aspects.

It is a team sport played with a ball on a field where the objective is to get into the opponent's goal with the other team defending it.

This would include sports such as Association Football or Soccer, Rugby Union, Rugby League,

American Football, Canadian Football, Australian Football, and Gaelic Football.

Games with balls date back as long as recorded history. Humans have been playing ball game since we could make balls.

The oldest known ancestor of football is the Chinese game of Kuzu, which has been dated back to the second and third centuries

b c. The ancient Greeks had a game called Episcyrus and the Romans had a game that

was based on the Greek game called Harpatsum. All of these have been mentioned in text. European Explorers found people playing ball games in Greenland, Virginia, Australia, Central America, and New Zealand.

...