At supper one night, I asked my family if they were up for a Chattanooga FC soccer game at Finley Stadium on July 4.
“Football game,” my 8-year-old son said, correcting me.
“Soccer game,” I insisted. “Son, the last time I looked, your birth certificate said East Ridge, not England.”
“Football game,” he said again, smiling and shoveling mac and cheese into his mouth.
My son has a Chattanooga FC T-shirt with the outline of an American football on the back. Under the pigskin, it says, “This is throwball.” Under that is the likeness of a soccer ball, with the caption, “This is football.”