You should give it a try. It’s actually the only version of Catan that I own. The support cards change thing in a significant way

I went last year and couldn’t get any picture that did the view justice. This pic is awesome though but I can guarantee it’s better in person still.

I actually looked into this recently. It’s related to standard naming conventions established by England. Originally there was Association Football (soccer), gridiron football (American football) and rugby football (obvi rugby). Regarding American football,

“Both soccer-style football and rugby-style football eventually found their way to America. What resulted was an American combination of the two games. It wasn’t until much later (1906) that forward passing was allowed. So because the American game was really just another form of the European football games, it too became known as football.”