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I disagree with the points you made.

1.) That time in between plays is not like a pause in baseball where the pitcher scratches his crotch, steps on and off the rubber, shakes his head up or down, etc. That time in between snaps is the setting of the chessboard for each and every play. In between the plays is often where the most cerebral work in the game comes. The players don’t know or care what is going on with advertising, if anything, it annoys them.

2.) The size and speed of the athletes in every sport has increased over the years. Hockey and basketball are good examples as well. Performance enhancing drugs are a problem in every single sport, bar none. If you want to damn all sports, that would be fair. To single out football out of context with other sports isn’t.

3.) I don’t really see the point in point #3. All players in every sport are more specialized than they ever were before. It is fun to see a defensive lineman lining in the backfield up to block for a running back near the goal line, but why is that even important as a flaw? One of the things that makes football interesting to a vast swath of people is that to a greater degree than many other sports, the actual intricate teamwork required to run a play to a successful conclusion is far more demanding than many other sports such as baseball, hockey, or basketball. All eleven players have to do their jobs to a more exacting degree than most other sports, or the play fails. In baseball, you can have a single player win the game by pitching a no-hitter. In hockey, a goalie can stand on his head to stuff a team for an entire game. In basketball, you can get the ball into the hands of Wilt Chamberlain, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, or Lebron James, and offense takes care of itself. Doesn’t work that way in football. I don’t see this as an inherent or obvious flaw.

All good points, but I'll address them one at a time.

1. That time in between snaps is the setting of the chessboard for each and every play. In between the plays is often where the most cerebral work in the game comes.

For one thing, the inevitable result is that football has become an overly scripted performance more than a real sport. And your post doesn't address my original point on this: Why the hell does the clock run while all this "cerebral work" and "setting of the chessboard" is going on?

2. The size and speed of the athletes in every sport has increased over the years. Hockey and basketball are good examples as well.

Players getting bigger and faster is one thing. How about when many of the positions are played by men who are bigger and slower? Is there any other sport out there where this guy would be considered an "athlete?" LOL.

3. All players in every sport are more specialized than they ever were before. It is fun to see a defensive lineman lining in the backfield up to block for a running back near the goal line, but why is that even important as a flaw?

Specialization itself isn't a problem, but football is the one sport where specialization is tied to variations in physical size -- which means players who specialize in one thing are completely unsuited (by physical nature, not talent) to others. You don't see this degree of specialization in any other sport.

And the teamwork point you make really underestimates the role of entire teams even in cases where one player can dominate on the scoreboard. I don't know any pitcher who tossed a no-hitter and struck out every batter, for example.