ENGLEWOOD, Colo. --
By using that word, it makes it easier to differentiate the pads-and-helmets iteration from the sleeveless-shirt-and-short-shorts, run-and-punt version of football played on oval fields in Australia.
The sports share a preferred name and rough shape of the ball -- they're both oblate spheroids, although the Australian version is rounder and blunter at the ends. There's a fair amount of hitting in each. There are goal posts.
But beyond that, Australian and American football have little common ground. Except, of course, in the occasional player that makes the leap across the Pacific Ocean and the Equator.