Is the NFL still watchable?

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Originally Posted by redearedslider (Post 8319203) Nerd alert but is there a recommended way to get into football? I vaguely understand the rules and I feel like I should understand enough to converse about it semi-intelligently.

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powerline

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This year, not being as busy as in the past, I have seen more NFL games than in any recent season. Yesterday I was home nursing a cold, and caught both the Vikings-Falcons game and the Patriots-Broncos game. Based on this year’s experience, I have concluded that penalties, along with endless video reviews of plays, have made the game just about impossible to watch. After every big play, you wait for the flag. More often than not, it seems, it comes. While some penalties are obvious, more often they appear to be called randomly, especially on important plays. It is frequently impossible to say what distinguishes a particular hold, pass interference or unnecessary roughness from similar conduct that occurred a few plays earlier or later. Given the lack of any apparent pattern in what constitutes a penalty, it is tempting to infer that referees insert them periodically to mold the flow of the game in a predetermined direction.

Is the NFL still watchable?