by stappard_ » Thu Jun 19, 2014 2:22 pm
Besides the fact that I find the idea of judging others (like your friend or many others) for not enjoying a pastime a bit dumb anyway, its not surprising that if you sit someone who's never watched a football/american football/golf/etc game and has no conception of what to be looking for, AND has no emotional attachment to the participants or the surrounding culture, they'll inevitably find it dull.
I suppose the real answer for the majority of people who watch sports is that a large part of their interest is in the soap opera side or the social side or some combination thereof.
Depending on your approach, the actual game (ie tactics) might be between 10% and 70% of why you enjoy watching it - the rest is in the storylines, be it redemption or disaster or booing the bad guys or whatever, and in the social aspects, whether thats in the form of the human desire to be part of a wider group, or in terrace/curva culture, and so on.