From Ooten Aboot, with an illuminating commentary:

In 1874, a similar culture clash happened in real life when Montreal’s McGill University challenged Harvard to a two game “football” match. To McGill, “football” meant Rugby, while Harvard followed “Boston Rules”, a version of Soccer with limited catching and carrying of a spherical ball. The solution was to play one game under each set of rules. Harvard won the “Boston” game, while the Rugby result was a 0-0 tie. Nevertheless, Harvard apparently liked the McGill style and adopted similar rules, so that encounter with McGill may have been the origin of American Football as it known today.

A case of How to Respond to Critics?