Those backward Americans

I've just been trying to make sense of American Football. So far there's been a lot of standing around with the occasional push and shove across the field. When the action's in motion it's hard to see what's happening; and sometimes the focus is more on the pushing and shoving  than the ball itself; resulting in only a few seconds of play. We then have a referee who; after a chat with his colleagues; calls out some strange numbers and does a little dance on the field. Our next treat is a quick profile update on the players and managers; while presumably someone runs around the pitch standing all the players back up again. There's also managers on the pitch edge with headsets while surrounded by a bunch of coaches. Presumably they're hiring and firing new players as their stock becomes bruised or increases in value. And numbers just keep appearing on the screen; the play clock just keeps freezing after every skirmish so how long it takes to play a whole game we'll never know. Even the network gave up interest and switched to a repeat of opening cardboard boxes rather than to see it through. Yet over 68,000 people were determined to sit through over four hours of stop motion action, just to see a stampede of helmets. Why? Because it's FOOTBALL!