“Why do you call it ‘football’ when they use their hands?” is the least original, least funny joke you could possibly make to an American. Also, there are more kicks in an average American football game than there are in an average rugby game, and you guys call rugby “football”
In Australia, depending on the state you live in, footie/football is assumed to be either rugby league or Australian rules football, unless the context makes it obvious that you're talking about soccer (association football) or rugby union.
Absolutely not. Rugby averages 35 - 40 kicks per game, way more than the NFL’s number of kicks per game. And while it has football in the official name, you either call it rugby, or its rule variant: union, league or sevens.
I think you’re only counting punts and leaving out place kicks. Also, I watch the URC weekly and the commentators do indeed refer to it as football. Not often, I will say, but they definitely do occasionally
Yeah very likely on the NFL side I’m counting places and not punts, and I’d be happy to add them. Rugby is very dynamic and there are many kicks inside the run of play, so I would still be very surprised if there are fewer than NFL tho. You’re also right about the commentators… they do sometimes call it footy, especially if Aussie. So your points stand — also I agree with the “why call it football if you play with hand” sentiment of your original post. Never thought about the numbers of kicks per game difference between sports, so it was an interesting bit of research.