I've collected together a few questions that come up quite often....
Why is it so slow?
Admittedly games take longer than other forms of football, however that has never struck me as meaning the games are actually slow. When the ball is in play, everything happens very quickly. When the ball's not in play, there are 22 players actions to review. I have never seen a play in which a player is not working at 100%, that's a condition of playing the game in this way. Instead of pacing yourself for 80 or 90 minutes, you can go all out every second.
I have watched "condensed" versions of the game, and from the standpoint of a guy that knows a lot about the game it all went by too quickly. There are so many strategic changes throughout a game/quarter/series that having the game run at a "regular" field game speed would call for a dramatic shift of strategic focus.
Judging American Football as slow based on the time between the ball being in play is akin to judging rugby based on time spent in rucks, scrums and in touch.
Why are the so many advert breaks?
There aren't really, not compared to regular television viewing. What you're not accounting for is the difference in how the game is played in comparison to association football or rugby. In those games there is no space for advertising during each half, so you get whole batches right through half time, as well as before and after the game. With American Football the advert breaks are shorter and more spaced out.
Everyone is just hitting each other!
Not a question, but yes. Everyone is hitting each other, even when they don't have the ball. This part of the game is called blocking, and is the main way of preventing the opposition from gaining possession of the football. It does look confusing at first, but you can quickly adjust to the new rule of law.
Isn't it just Rugby with pads?
Speaking from the perspective of a dude that played both (albeit at a junior level) I can categorically deny that. The games both have similar origins, Gridiron having grown out of a very early form of rugby. The main distinction between the two is that rugby is more of an endurance game, where gridiron is a power game.
Rugby is made up of two 40 minutes periods of constant movement. American Football is a series of 10 second bursts of energy spread over two to three hours. This means that you're more likely to be bruised all over after playing rugby, and more likely to have one serious injury from playing football. I plan on looking at the differences between the games in more depth, as it's always the first comparison people try to make. For now, rest assured that there are big differences between the games.
Why is it called "Football", and not Hand Egg?
Ah, you're one of those people. In short, because it's American Football. Like Rugby [Football] Union, Aussie Rules [Football], (Association) Football etc.
More precisely: this article.
If you come across any more questions I'd be happy to do a second one of these.
That's all for this one folks, keep up to date @AScotOnGridiron on Twitter.