[Alberta's Child]

American football has one thing in common with soccer that makes them two of the dumbest sports ever invented.

They're the only sports where the clock runs after the whistle blows and the ball is not in play.

Absolutely retarded.

[discostu]

Except of course the play is still happening. Football isn’t snap to whistle. Substitution, lineup, motion, presnap reads. Those are all a part of the play.

The biggest thing the NFL has going for it is that structure. It perfectly matches the “rule of 3” that’s dominated dramatic television basically since TV was invented.

Tell them what you’re going to show them
Show them
Tell them what they just saw

That’s the structure of every drama until the 90s when a few show runners started screwing with it. Rockford Files. Kojak. All the great old shows. And most of the stuff going now.

And that’s the structure of football. The commentators try to predict the play, the play happens, they analyze the play. And it’s the only sport out there that really does that.