“What has 22 legs and 2 wings, but can’t fly?”/“A football team.”

A sports riddle is:
 
Q: What has 22 legs and 2 wings, but can’t fly?
A: A football (soccer) team.
 
The riddle has been cited in print since at least 2002 and has been included in many “Christmas cracker” joke collections.
 
“What has four legs and flies?” is an old riddle. “What has 18 legs and catches flies?”/“A baseball team” is a similar sports riddle.
       
   
21 December 2002, The Herald (Glasgow, Scotland), “Interesting times for top dog who doesn’t do dairy” by Christopher Hope, pg. 1B:
BAE Systems held a jolly Christmas lunch for journalists, shrugging off suggestions that it might be “another Railtrack” because of a (pounds) 1bn cost over-run on its Nimrod fighter and Astute submarine contracts. One BAE official even tailored a cracker joke to suit the company’s predicament. “What has 22 legs and two wings but cannot fly?”, the cracker joke asked. The official gave his own answer. “Nimrod” he said, quick as a flash. The answer is, of course, “A football team”.
 
19 December 2004, The People (London, UK), “That’s a cracker! Jokes to make you gag over Christmas dinner” by Matt Glass, pg. 8:
WHAT has 22 legs and two wings but can’t fly? - A football team.
 
19 December 2008, The Sun> (London, UK), “Have a Laugh,” pg. 43:
WHAT has 22 legs, two wings but can’t fly? A football team..
     
Google Groups: Angelique’sSmorgaabord
jokes
Andrea
2/16/09
(...)
WHAT has 22 legs, two wings but can’t fly? A football team.
 
Twitter
Andrew Jones B.S.
‏@EthanRunt
“What has 22 legs and 2 wings but can’t fly? A football team!” #MalteserAdventCalenderDoors
7:56 AM - 22 Dec 2009
 
Google Books
Gigglers: Sporty Jokes
By Toby Reynolds
London: Scholastic UK
2016
Pg. 49:
Q. What has 22 legs and two wings but can’t fly?
A. A football team!