THE SUPER BOWL

American football is a mad, if not ridiculous, game. It is supposed to take an hour; but with changes of personnel, stopping the clock, time-outs, a two-minute warning in each half and advert breaks, it takes three to four hours. Because of position specialisation, in offense, defense and special teams, there are huge numbers of players (more than 50) in the playing squad, though only 11 on the field at any one time. Nearly all of the players are fantastic athletes, or frighteningly big, or both. Yet many of them spend less than 10 minutes a game actually running, or blocking, or catching, or tackling; most of the time they just stand on the sidelines, looking menacing in their shoulder pads and cheekbone warpaint.

It also embodies peculiarly American traits. The winners of the Super Bowl are called the world champions, even though the game is only really played in the U.S. and Canada. The Super Bowl numbers are for some reason in Latin, perhaps echoing a gladiatorial past. Matches start with ever more strangulated versions of the National Anthem. And there is an army of esoteric statistics such as "yards carried after receiving the ball" or a quarterback rating of more than a hundred that still manages to have a decimal point in it (why?).

Does that mean that I won't be watching the Colts v the Saints tonight? Absolutely not. Despite, or because of, all of the above, I find American football absolutely gripping. The need for precise teamwork and split-second timing is almost unparalleled in sport. There is scope for unbelievable plays, both offensively and defensively. The helmets and padding make it almost impossible to play dirty. The weird machinations of the clock mean that many games are not over until they are over. All they need to do now is get rid of the advert breaks, and it would be perfect ...

Walter Blotscher