Good analysis, Jack: gave me quite a chuckle.
Grid Iron (sorry, just plain 'Football' here, like there are no others forms of it!) Yes, have to agree: for a three hour 'game' they really only 'play' for about 20 minutes. Yet it has millions of fanatical fans -alomost as fanatical as Aussie Rules fans. There are shops dedicated to just football 'stuff' for fans, sometimes only the local team and nothing else. Quite bizarre, really, but what the heck, they're havin' farn' (emphasis on the 'r').
And they haven't stopped people playing with guns here. Huntin' shootin' fishin' are national pastimes - there's even a TV channel dedicated to it. We have a good friend who is a contractor who weaves his jobs and locations around the various hunting and fishing seasons in each state. We, of course, share the benefit: he's also a great cook!
Mike C