I used to watch NHL hockey when I was a kid. Then I started going to college hockey games, and that was great, but a terrible side effect is that I've never
been able to enjoy TV hockey in quite the same way. Those players off the screen are really important.
The advent of HDTV has done a lot to fix this for hockey, where the rink is not so huge. But it would be awesome to have full-field perspective on football.
I agree that most sports are better live. The problem is that NFL games have so many TV timeouts now that watching NFL games live gets boring. There is so much downtime, that it's not worth the $100+ for a ticket anymore.
You can get around this pretty easily by just using a DVR and starting the game about halfway through. Fast forward through the commercials/breaks and you'll progressively catch up as the game goes on, and hopefully finish at about the same time.
The only major issue with this is if you have friends watching separately who regularly text you about occurences in the game as it's going on. You'll also have to make sure you don't look at any NFL websites during the game.
The first time I went to a NHL game and sat behind the goal it was a revelation - the positioning, the tactics, everything becomes so clear when you see the entire rink isometrically.
I have a slightly different problem... I grew up watching WHL games. When I tried to watch NHL games on TV, I got bored waiting for the good hits and fights.
The advent of HDTV has done a lot to fix this for hockey, where the rink is not so huge. But it would be awesome to have full-field perspective on football.