>>Can't remember who it was, but I heard an author a few years ago comment that football is a 60-minute game that takes 3 hours,
>>
>>Yeah, but it allows me to grab a beer in between plays :)
>
>Grab a beer ?
>You'd have time to grab a bottle of whisky ;-}

I'm a little unclear about why Mike especially who should know better thinks there are only 12 minutes of action in a football game. They have a clock that only runs when something is happening and that clock has 60 minutes on it, so you are pretty much guaranteed people will be doing something or at least being very intense for that time. I watch football on DVR and fast forward through commercials and halftime and it still takes an hour to watch a game.

A four hour baseball game could be reduced to about 10 minutes of actually athletic endeavor, but football, basketball, soccer, rugby and hockey are very time-regulated sports (though the clock management at the end of a basketball game is as maddening to me as I assume the interruptions of play in american football are to you)

(I should add by the way that I hope it comes through that most of my comments on soccer are in jest - when I watch the good stuff even though I have pretty limited knowledge of the fine points of the game I find it very entertaining and the athletic ability - especially stamina - admirable, though rugby and lacrosse are more to my taste)