The use of the term 'World Champions'

[PATRIOT64]

This might be a dumb question but thought I would ask since I never had seen an answer before...

I always hear this term in use,especially when it comes to the Super Bowl and the winning team is called 'World Champions'

If the NFL is USA only (at least right now) and no teams in the league are from the other countries and since other countries have football leagues of their own (Canadian Football,Austrailian Rules ect) and no players are drafted from other countries - then why is it the SB champs are called World Champions instead of United States Champions?

Just wondering when this phrase was made and why it is called this if anyone has an idea?

Yeah I know the USA is the most well known country of the world and the #1 of all of earth but still interesting of why its nicknamed that.

 

[patsfanofNC12]

That is a very good question, I have also wondered this. Wish I knew how it came to be

 

[pwes]

Cause World Champions sounds better than United States Champions? Not to mention in a technicality aspect they ARE World Champions just by default.

 

[TheGodInAGreyHoodie]

Heck I refer as the solar system champions until someone can prove to me someone plays NFL style football on Saturn.

 

[PATRIOT64]

Cause World Champions sounds better than United States Champions? Not to mention in a technicality aspect they ARE World Champions just by default.

Well IMO if the winning team of the Canadian Football league does not deserve to be called World Champions as well (which they are not called that) then its a bit demeaning,don't you think?

 

[BelichickFan]

It's part of the charm of Americans

 

[Red_Sox_Fan]

Simple...for us nothing outside of our country means anything. USA is our world...

 

[Satchboogie3]

Simple, American's are pretentious ****suckers. Yes, I'm calling myself a pretentious ****sucker. I do live in this country, don't I?

 

[MrClutch]

The NFL is where the best of the best play.

If you can find me a team of players from anywhere around the world to beat the Patriots, only then they shouldn't be called the World Champions.

 

[amakattack]

The only other competition is CFL teams and they would get crushed by any NFL team, so they are world champions in a sense. No one else in the world can beat them. Then again, no one else in the world plays, but still.

 

[PATRIOT64]

The NFL is where the best of the best play.

If you can find me a team of players from anywhere around the world to beat the Patriots, only then they shouldn't be called the World Champions.

So no other team in the world in previous years could have beaten the 2006 Colts or 2005 Steelers or 2002 Bucs...ect?

 

[amakattack]

No. Think about it - NFL scrubs can get jobs in the CFL and some even turn into stars. Would never work the other way around. Arena football's just as bad.

 

[Red_Sox_Fan]

May be no other team in the world can win Super Bowl....of course they cant participate. Hey...thats not my problem

 

[PatsFan#37]

I have always disliked the term world champions since we don't compete with the rest of the world.

 

[PantsB]

NFL style football is not played professionally outside the US. The closest thing is the CFL and that uses different rules ... and even they would not claim they're at the NFL's level. Baseball has the "World Series" and the NBA finals are referred to as the "World Championship", and thats at least debatable. The champion team of the NFL is the best in the world and I don't think any argument can be made otherwise.

So no other team in the world in previous years could have beaten the 2006 Colts or 2005 Steelers or 2002 Bucs...ect?

Of course not.

 

[SoxFanNH]

I have always disliked the term world champions since we don't compete with the rest of the world.

Same here, I have always felt its a bit pompous.

 

[letekro]

"world champions" is an informal, unofficial title. Formally, they are recognized as "Super Bowl ____ Champions".

 

[BradyFTW!]

It's a little presumptuous, sure, but no moreso than calling themselves American champions without playing every high college team would be. By the logic you're using they can pretty much only be called NFL Champions.

 

[godef]

This might be a dumb question but thought I would ask since I never had seen an answer before...

I always hear this term in use,especially when it comes to the Super Bowl and the winning team is called 'World Champions'

If the NFL is USA only (at least right now) and no teams in the league are from the other countries and since other countries have football leagues of their own (Canadian Football,Austrailian Rules ect) and no players are drafted from other countries - then why is it the SB champs are called World Champions instead of United States Champions?

Just wondering when this phrase was made and why it is called this if anyone has an idea?

Yeah I know the USA is the most well known country of the world and the #1 of all of earth but still interesting of why its nicknamed that.

In my mind, the term "World Champion" is wrong in the sense that the whole World simply isn't involved. The "United States Champion" wouldn't even be quite right.

The pertinent definition in the Merriam-Webster dictionary is thus: "a winner of first prize or first place in competition" (my emphasis).

Certainly, the Super Bowl winner can be considered the "champions of the best league in the world", and therefore they are the best team in the world, but they are not the champions of the world because not the whole world is involved. But how can anyone know, if there were any interest in the rest of the world, that the talent isn't out there to put together a better team.

Let's stretch this a tad further: could they be called the "champions of the universe"? Unless you consider Star Trekian parallel universes, of course there are probably no better American football teams in the whole universe, but I think this makes the notion of "world champions" seem just a bit more silly.

The only correct term for the NFL is either "NFL Champions" or else "Super Bowl Champions', because that's exactly what they are champions of.

Where did the term come from? Don't know if MLB originated this habit, but they certainly perpetuated it: (http://www.roadsidephotos.com/baseball/name.htm).

Consider how the NHL always thought itself the greatest hockey in the world, and that its Stanley Cup Champion, though called that in practice, was in various eras considered the World Champions. Clearly this notion was challendged when the NHL began playing against teams from the old Soviet Union. Today though, the NHL may be the truest international sports league in the world, and MLB is coming around, so perhaps a "World Champion" in those leagues may have become more accurate.

 

[PatriotsReign]

This might be a dumb question but thought I would ask since I never had seen an answer before...

I always hear this term in use,especially when it comes to the Super Bowl and the winning team is called 'World Champions'

If the NFL is USA only (at least right now) and no teams in the league are from the other countries and since other countries have football leagues of their own (Canadian Football,Austrailian Rules ect) and no players are drafted from other countries - then why is it the SB champs are called World Champions instead of United States Champions?

Just wondering when this phrase was made and why it is called this if anyone has an idea?

Yeah I know the USA is the most well known country of the world and the #1 of all of earth but still interesting of why its nicknamed that.

It means NFL "world" champions. Since the game isn't played anywhere else, the NFL champs are world champs...remember, Canadian and European football don't count.

Another reason is that the term goes back more than 50 years when we thought of any "American" champion as the world champion. Rather arrogant of us, but it was probably true back then. It still applies to Football, but maybe not baseball as much.