[Steve_Seattle]

American football and basketball have been harmed by excessive breaks for TV commercials and various other timeouts. (I could hardly stand to watch the NCAA basketball tournament, where it took about 25-30 minutes to play the last seven minutes of some of the games.) So soccer has the advantage of being RELATIVELY continuous.

But much of that continuity consists of relatively boring midfield passing, balls kicked back to one's own goalkeeper, and - of course - all of the flopping, which even disgusts most soccer fans. The amount of high-excitement play in soccer can usually be boiled down to about two or three minutes of actual playing time. In American football, however, any play can result in a game-changing touchdown or turnover or sack or big gain, so I think the moment-by-moment excitement in American football is greater than in soccer.

[Fuzz]

“American football and basketball have been harmed by excessive breaks for TV commercials and various other timeouts.”

The continuous play with no commercial interruptions is one of the things that makes it enjoyable for me to watch.