The game is FOOTBALL not SOCCER. stop being rude and have some manners. Your game is gridion not football.
The game is Association Football (Soccer for short). There were a number of variety of games played on foot. In the latter part of the 19th century, a group of clubs got together to codify the rules of their game. Those whose rules did not permit running with the ball called themselves an "association", and their game was football played by the Association rules. Those who preferred the rules that permitted running with the ball called their organization a "union". Since they based their rules on those used at Rugby School, it was also called Rugby Union. The Scottish Football Union did not see a need to add "Rugby" to their name until well into 20th century.
In the US, the variety of football was more akin to soccer, until McGill University challenged Harvard to a pair of matches, one played with each set of rules. The Harvard team liked the McGill rules which were more rugby-like and adopted them. Harvard convinced Yale to switch to the new style. It was at Yale where most of the innovations (scrimmage, downs, and the forward pass) that differentiate football from rugby were developed. I don't know whether the Skull and Bones society was involved or not.
Interestingly, throughout the English speaking world with the exception of Britain, the predominate form of football is not soccer. In more egalitarian Canada, US, Australia, Ireland, South Africa and New Zealand everyone was allowed to participate. In Britain, rugby tended to be played by the poshes from the so-called public schools, while soccer became the sport of the lower class. The insistence that all the varieties that involve running with the ball are not "football" is some sort of class consciousness adopted by Britons.
"gridiron" and "gridders" is a poetic term akin to calling basketball players, "cagers".
