And to had to that, soccer comes from the term Association Football (hence A.F.C. -> Association Football Club) but since it was too long, the British shortened it to Soccer and it was the prefered term going back as far as the late 19th century. Refering to it as football regained popularity in the UK during the 1960s. As for Gridiron Football, the first part of the name was dropped long ago as at the time all football sports were simply called "football" in North America (this includes Rugby).
And yes this joke is sooo tired, my first reaction was "oh we're going back to making those lame repeated memes that made me quit 9gag 10 years ago"
There are conflicting explanations of the origin of the word "football". It is widely assumed that the word "football" (or the phrase "foot ball") refers to the action of the foot kicking a ball. There is an alternative explanation, which is that football originally referred to a variety of games in medieval Europe that were played on foot. There is no conclusive evidence for either explanation.
It wouldn't be such a tired cliché if Americans were not insisting on ownership of "football" without the qualification "American". Nobody makes fun of Australian rules football, Canadian football or Gaelic football, because they don't claim the generic term football to the exclusion of what the vast majority of the world calls football.
How far is 11.5 inches away from a foot? Since I don't know what a foot is apparently, can you tell me how far off I was? Is .5 inches a lot? I can't tell. I guess people don't round for convenience? I can't believe I was so off. 11.5 out of 12? Might as well be 1.5.