I never used to get the appeal (grew up in NC where no one really cares about football except that one year the Panthers went to the Super Bowl) but my husband was always a HUGE football/ Redskins fan. Sometimes to give him a chuckle I would read some sports article or listen to sports radio for a bit and ask him some really specific football question and pretend like I knew something about it. Just as a joke. Over time though, I somehow started reading/listening/watching more and more about football and I really developed a legitimate interest. Once you have some basic knowledge of the players and coaches and which teams are good and which teams are bad, it's pretty fun to follow the personal dramas and rivalries and all that. And then the games are more fun to watch too.
We watch on TV except going to one game per year at fedex field because my husbands mom always gets him tickets to his game of choice for his birthday from a friend who has season tickets in the front row. We don't buy drinks or anything so it is awesome! :D This year I gave the axe to Sunday ticket and I'm trying to figure out how we could cut cable and not miss any redskins games. My husband can't stand to miss a single second of anything to do with the redskins, including draft and preseason, and since it's really his only luxury at this point, until we find a good way around it, we may be stuck with cable just for the football. We're getting a roommate, so at the very least we will be able to shave 1/2 the cost of cable off our budget when the roommate moves in.