It's more than half down-time. American football is turn-based strategy game of professional sports. Everyone lines up, crashes into each other like fools (note that the mentally retarded wear helmets too) while the two or three skilled athletes (they're easy to spot because they are thin and agile) on the team are entrusted to actually move the ball around.
Sure, there is a lot of impressive muscle out there, and the players are dedicated and put a lot of work into playing, especially at the professional level. But working hard isn't working smart, and these athletes could be using their talent, or at least bigness, toward something greater than crashing into each other and waiting for the next play.
But that's not the important thing. The important thing is that a large number of American males are programmed that Football is Manly and American, and so they salute the pigskin and watch the commercials and buy the beer.
$ports.