When I say football you immediately think of a quarterback, the Dallas Cowboys, yards, touchdowns, Super Bowl etc. However, why is it called football when the majority of the time plays are being made with hands?

The only times the foot is being involved in this sport is during a kickoff, punt, extra point or to put three points on the board. So where do we get football from?

Well, a long time ago when the English settled in the states they brought a few sports from back home, one of them of being football but not the football we Americans are accustomed to seeing, a much more elegant, beautiful, artistic, exhilarating, magnificent, magical, and much more competitive football.

The other sport that the English brought to the states was rugby. American football as most Englishmen might say was created through a fusion of both of these sports rugby and football, the “real” football. 95 percent of the time this “real” football lives up to its name being played strictly with the foot.

The only time a hand touches the ball is when the ball travels out of bounds, other than that a handball on the pitch is punished by awarding the opposing team a free-kick. Because of American football, soccer does not get the respect it deserves.

I am a soccer player, coach and fanatic that has experienced firsthand discrimination simply because I was playing the wrong football. My friends and I have constantly been kicked out of public parks and in some cases have had to deal with LA county sheriffs to make sure we do not show up to these parks in the future.

Some of these parks have taken it to a far more extreme level and wasting money in making soccer signs that prohibit you to play. As an American it is embarrassing and disgraceful to tell these stories to people from other countries because nowhere else in the world do they encounter these problems.

People around the world eat, sleep and breathe soccer and for some it is their only reason to live. Clearly the sport of the Earth is soccer, a sport that has united the masses of cultures and nationalities. The power of soccer has been able to bring revenue to third world countries, hope, peace, grace, happiness and an escape of reality to a lot of these poverty stricken countries.

In 94,’ USA was given their first opportunity to host the World Cup; the outcome was an unforgettably priceless moment in history.

It was America’s biggest soccer boom it had ever experienced still to this day. Sold out venues, record breaking attendances, tourism, world peace and tranquility was in full effect for at least the longevity of the event, one month.

Still to this day, the US Soccer Foundation whom I currently work for is living off the money that was made in the 1994s World Cup.

Established in 1994 this foundation has helped change the lives of kids who have limited opportunities at no cost, helping them build skills not only on the pitch but off of it as well.

So I leave you with one final thought, how can an American foundation such as the us soccer foundation have such an impact and role of the lives of many kids throughout all fifty states through promoting soccer when at the same time some of these same kids that were taught to stay off the streets and use their energy playing soccer be the same ones being kicked out of parks and back on to the streets?

Spreading soccer is spreading peace and love, get informed and learn why the rest of the world defends and plays soccer so much.