Australia and South Africa ain't in North America the last time I checked, smarty pants. Let me guess -- you spent a semester abroad and became a "footy" expert.
It turns out that soccer is only one kind of football, and American football is another. Contrary to popular belief, these games aren't called "football" because the foot is used to kick the ball, but rather because the game is played on foot. (The opposite of this are games like polo, played on horseback.)
Fun fact, the divide between people who call it "football" and people who call it "soccer," its proper name, falls largely along class lines, with the wealthier classes using the correct name.