My name is Brian, and I am a hockey pool addict. (wait for polite introductory applause from the other addicts in the therapy session) It started years ago when I entered the Surrey Leader newspaper’s hockey pool which began every year prior to the NHL season. At first I sucked. I finished 500th or something. Then one year I finished in the top 20. Then I started entering pools at work as well as the newspaper. I won the work ones most of the time and started playing the CBC pool which had 50,000+ entries and gave away a car as a prize. One year I finished 6th, and my son finished first in the country for one month for which he won a signed jersey.
Category: Sports
Why I Prefer Hockey over Football
Well another Super Bowl , er, Big Game, has come and gone without me watching. I watched the last couple of years because the local-ish Seattle Seahawks were involved, but I have no regional or personal stake in Carolina or Denver. I’m sure they’re very nice places, and the teams are probably popping with interesting stories, so it’s my loss in the end. I got in a little discussion today about the amount of actual playing time there is in an NFL game, and I dug about and found the statistics.
An average NFL telecast is 3 hours and 12 minutes which is comprised of:
63 minutes of commercials,
67 minutes of shots of the players wandering around,
35 minutes of shots of the crowd, coaches, cheerleaders etc.,
15 minutes of replays,
and lastly, 11 minutes of football being played.
I am quoting the article, and I notice it doesn’t quite add up, but that’s the way it was presented. Where hockey comes in, in my comparison, is that the average hockey telecast is about 2 hours 40 minutes and includes at least 60 full minutes of action, dotted with ads, players spitting and two 17 minute intermissions. It’s a whole lot more bang for your buck. Add in the guys skating around at 25 mph with razors on their boots, and shooting a rubber bullet 100 mph and you have a nice fast, dangerous sport. Hell, they’re even allowed to fight.