Americans are a bit weird and different when it comes to sport......or most things actually.

A team wins a competition over there, whether it be American Football, Baseball, Basketball.....and the Yanks pronounce them as WORLD Champions and everyone agrees.

Leeds not only win the GF, but the World Club Challenge and it apparently makes our sport a joke to call us WORLD champions.

I'm pretty sure the only comp the yanks mention 'world' in is baseball, and I'm pretty sure it's only called the 'World Series' as it was sponsored by the 'World' publication.

Have to agree though, Americans are a strange breed!

To quote Top Gear when talking about American cars.....

"In European cars they'll have symbols for the wipers and headlights etc because we acknowledge that other countries speak different languages. Where as in America it'll just say 'WIPERS' on the button because.....what is French???"

I heard this years Super Bowl NFL winners called the world champions by the commentators and the celebrating players too

Are there any teams outside of America that could beat them? No so they are the best team in the world.

Quite right too - only the very myopic actually believe that when Leeds won the WCC they were actually the best team in the world. The WCC is a joke - the British sides have all the advantages and still struggle to get over the line. When an NRL take it seriously seldom does the SL side cover themselves in glory. When Wigan beat Brisbane in Australia yes they were the best team in the world at that time.

The same goes for Kevin Sinfield when some guys in Brighouse awarded him the golden boot - did anyone really believe he was the best player in the world?

that is the explanation although they've been using that term since the sports were only played in the USA

Fair play to JP for taking a clean slate approach i thought we'd dropped a huge clanger not retaining him until it was revealed he'd turned the opportunity to stay down and his reasons for doing so.
I'd still have him in a heart beat but if he sees his future and challenges elsewhere good luck to him.

Living in the US as I know you do, maybe you can confirm or refute my thoughts that I have picked up as a regular visitor there.
The world is America to the Americans therefore any sporting champs in domestic competitions are per se (sic) world champions.

that is correct I think they also call the the Hockey and Basket ball winners world champs too

I've only ever heard the term "world champions" in common usage in the NFL and MLB, both of which are sports where US "clubs" are clearly the world leader.

I can't say I've heard it used with any regularity to describe the Stanley Cup or NBA champions. Not to say it doesn't happen, but again you could excuse the belief that no other professional league contains a team that would compete with the best in the NHL or NBA.

It's certainly not used in other US sports such as football, rugby etc.

I am not certain about it but I will check it out.They are basically ok but being as insular as they really are it is a bit frustrating trying to explain to many of them that there is a sport of RL in the first place let alone the differences between RL and RU.