He's covered in protective scales, so all the rubbing his nose is for theater, but his dignity, Ignis! At least he has a ball to bat around between his foreclaws now.

"Football is kind of like martial arts with a ball involved. People get into it during festivals, usually... I was always kind of scared of coming out of it with a broken arm, though."

He's from a medieval society, they don't have association rules but they do have some
sort of analogue to Shrovetide football or some sort of calcio-esque game where people punch each other and also a ball is there.