The chronicler-monk who wrote the Miracles of King Henry VI described (c.1365-70) football in these terms: 'The game . . . for common recreation is called by some the foot-ball-game. It is one in which young men, in country sport, propel a huge ball not by throwing it into the air but by stroking and rolling it along the ground and that not with their hands but with their feet. A game, I say, abominable enough, and, in my judgement at least, more common, undignified and worthless than any other kind of game, rarely ending but with some loss or accident or disadvantage to the players themselves.' The breathless indignation concerning the doings of the young still rings fresh.
Dictionary of Medieval Terms and Phrases. Christopher Coredon with Ann Williams.