What? American Football does in fact, require pads. Otherwise, you are playing touch or flag football, and not the sport played by Pop Warner kids, or by young men in stadiums on campuses and in the NFL. Modern football teams rarely have players playing both ways. Even the smallest high school teams have rosters in the 30+ range. College teams can have in excess of 100 players. NFL teams have 53 players plus scout team players. It costs anywhere between $500-1000 per player just in individual equipment (surely the NFL is higher).
When our high school started football, they had to raise $40,000 for helmets/pads. That's a specific cost I definitely remember.
Soccer rosters typically have 15-20 players that play the majority of minutes. Pro rosters typically have no more than 30 players total. I have 3 kids playing soccer, and not one of their teams has a pair of goalie gloves. Even if they did, they are $10-20. Shin guards are $5 at Wal-Mart. It's not remotely the same. You could outfit a soccer league for less than the cost of one football player.
Can we agree to disagree? If you want to research it, google has plenty of articles on the topic. Soccer for some. Football for others.