Don’t forget that sports originally were included in university and college programs to give the young men (since most of these institutions were all-male) a sense of honor, decency, and fair play. So much for that.
But now football, at least, is a bunch of other vapid entertainment stuff that is occasionally interrupted by some perfunctory motion on the gridiron.
Soccer with its unstoppable clock has a greater urgency. Even baseball with its innings does.