Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?
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Notes -
A few years back, the Wall Street Journal did an oft-quoted analysis that found that in a 1-hour football game (that takes up 3 hours of broadcast time on average), there was only 11 minutes of action. People who don't like football took this as proof that the game was stupid, but 11 minutes is actually the perfect amount of time, and it explains why football is so popular. It's counterintuitive, but it's true. Sure, hockey has continual action, but unless you're at the game, this actually works to its detriment. Too much excitement is no excitement. A football game is broken up into chunks whose meaning is clearly evident to anyone with a working understanding of the game, and there's plenty of time in between to both contemplate what we've just seen and anticipate what is going to happen next. Commentators have more room to show replays and offer in-depth analysis. If you're watching with friends you can have a conversation, pause during the play, then continue your conversation. Constant action is like watching a Western film that's nothing but shootouts. Yes, the shootout might be the most exciting part of a normal western, but it has an ebb and flow that makes the shootout meaningful. I love hockey, don't get me wrong, but I understand why it's not as popular as football. If you watch a football game at a bar, you'll get a dozen opinions on what Team A just did and what they should do on the next play. Most of these people don't know what they're talking about, but there's enough meat on the bone for them to at least have an opinion. In hockey, strategy is completely lost on the casual viewer. There isn't enough time in between plays for the announcers to explain it, and the action is so fast that unless you've been involved in the sport for years you won't be able to spot it. the best you get is people yelling for them to shoot more on the power play.
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