A few comments from someone who played sports at a semi-pro level as a young man, but is long past those times.
1. All the comments about a sport (or sports) being boring are really a reflection on the commenter. Soccer is boring if you don't know what is going on. Same thing for American football....
TRUE! I went to a University of Texas vs. Dallas football game with another expat Australian, at the UT in Austin in 1992. We knew nothing about American football, but expected to enjoy the game. At some stage (I kid you not), I asked another spectator when the game was going to begin. His answer was it was already half way through! We thought the players were were just practising or warming up as there was little action to be seen. Up until then, the only entertainment was watching the cheerleaders. We had absolutely no idea about American football.
When I was much younger, I played a rare sport in Australia called baseball. I was actually a member of the Essendon Baseball Club. Practising every Saturday morning and playing every Sunday, I got pretty good at it. In 1997 I visited Boston and was invited to the Boston Red Sox vs. New York Yankees baseball game. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience, from the crowd, the hot dogs, the venue, and of course the game because I understood it. A bonus was some huge bloke named Mo would donate to a charity $10,000 for every home run he hit.
3. Workplace involvement in sports is largely related to how consuming the work is. Sports doesn't seem big in most medical settings. Many engineering jobs are fully consuming.
You are right. Most engineers are under tight deadlines. I have not watched a movie for weeks, as I am under a tight deadline working from home doing PCB design for a client.... 8 layers, BGA's, very tight real estate, multiple voltage rails. So it is fully consuming even over Easter. Sport is the last thing on my mind, but at least I am nearing the Gerber stage and will be glad when this one is over. On the other hand, from many of these comments a lot of people here are just not interested in football, irrespective of how busy they are.
I think we are a bit of a subculture, started by the Tandy 150-in-1 Electronics Kit
.