I am also Canadian, and love hockey. I was talking to some British guys at a CFL game once, and they weren't impressed with Canadian football. I really can't blame them. So I suggested hockey, and they said they liked the game, but couldn't follow the puck.

And it occurred to me that I know where the puck is because I know where it's going to be. After spending 20 years playing and watching, I can figure out where the dump-in is probably going to ring around the boards to. And if it doesn't make it, I can figure out what happened to it. But if the puck's in the close corner obscured by the boards, or changes direction and is lost by the camera, it would be hard to follow the game.

(If only FOX could design some kind of blue streak around the puck.........)

And then on top of that you have to figure out offsides and icings and all that. But, my friends, it is well worth the effort, even if you're stuck cheering for the Leafs your whole life...

Curling is absolutely exhilarating to watch. I almost pass out from pure excitement every time they slide the stone.

I'm no sports fan, but being Australian, specifically Victorian, I'd say Australian Rules Football.

I agree about Curling, but more from a strategy point of view. (Again a Canadian thing as more the 75% of the worlds curlers are Canadian). In Canada Curling is the second most televised sport (after Golf (mostly on the golf network).

Curling is awesome. I'm American, and if I see curling on I'll stop and watch a bit at least. I don't know exactly how the scoring works (something like Horseshoes?), but it's fun to watch every now and then.

Professional (American) Football is my favorite sport to watch. There are only 16 games in a season which means that every week counts, unlike other sports *cough baseball cough* where there are 150+ games and the season just drags on.

Basketball and Hockey are ok, but I don't watch it much for the same reasons as baseball (80 games each). And basketball has been tarnished in my view with all the recent refs that have cheated.

Soccer = alright; Golf = the announcers don't sell it enough, they are always whispering even though they are no where near the golfers; Nascar/F1 = not a real sport.

Oh, and I've recently gotten into UFC/MMA and I've found that a lot of fun to watch once I got a grasp of all the nuances and rules. It is alot quicker paced then boxing, and more dynamic.

Golf is great on tv if you can appreciate what is going on, going to a golf tournament in person is quite possibly the greatest suicide inducing sports experience of all time.

Tennis is nice to watch, but I'm a competitive player so I'm a bit biased in that respect:]

MMA is an awesome spectator sport in my opinion, because anybody can watch it and enjoy it, provided they don't disagree with all the, you know, fighting that goes on. Part of the reason why MMA is such a great spectator sport is because it doesn't take a genius to watch a stand up war and realize that those guys are total badasses, but you can also watch it with years of experience under your belt and truly understand what is going on inside the ring/cage.

Golf = BLEH!, though I totally approve of your tennis watching/playing. Personally I like the pace and excitement of hockey as a spectator sport. Basketball I can get into but not as much as some sports where the game can change so quickly with a goal.

MMA is pretty good. I like it better than boxing, but its not really my cup of tea.

Boxing is, or was anyway, much more popular because on the surface it appears very simple. Any idiot can go to a boxing match and realize that it takes balls to do what those guys do, but when an MMA fight goes to the ground and the jiu-jitsu and wrestling skills come out, the average dumbass can't comprehend what is going on. Boxing is appealing because it is brutal, the participants literally HAVE to stand and fight, regardless of their desire to use other methods of fighting. MMA is so much more complex that most of the truly great fights, the ones that encompass everything from boxing to muay thai to wrestling to jiu-jitsu to judo and everything in between, so much of that is lost to the common viewer, who might be able to appreciate a head kick because it looks cool, but can't understand why an arm bar is such a great achievement.

Even if you're not a big fan of golf, I recommend watching the majors, especially once Tiger comes back, because that guy under pressure is a great thing to see.

I find pretty much any sport at a high level is watchable, once you take the time to understand the rules. So I can (and have, and do) enjoyed NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, Aussie Rullies, Rugby Union, Rugby League, pretty much any Olympic Sport, Tennis, Golf (Ryder Cup is great, The Open is the best major), F1. And anything else I've forgotten. Pretty much the only things that I wouldn't watch are boxing and horse racing (you have to be there to enjoy that)

But the number one for me is Football (the proper version, where you kick a BALL with your FOOT :) ). No other sport has such a dynamic flow, combination of team work and individual skill. A great team is always greater than the sum of it's parts. Every goal is vital. It takes seconds to create a move the length of the field. The tactics and strategies are fluid and evolving.

And it has the highest chance of an underdog win of any pro sport (I'd find the link for the research for this if I could).

And, finally, it's the simplest game out there. All you need is some ground, and a 'ball', and some people. That's it. It's why it's the most popular team sport in the world. It can be played in a field, in the street, in a garden, in a park. You can play with 2 a side up to dozens. It's not increasingly limted to those at the extremes of the human body shape range (hello NFL & NBA).

Yes, it can be dull, but so can any sport. Some of the best games I've seen finished 0-0. And that's fine. But I'll never forget Maradona's 2nd goal vs England in 86, Zidanes volley at Hampden, Bergkamp at Euro 88, Owen vs Argentina, or many other brilliant moments.
The greats of the game are known worldwide - Pele, Maradona, Puskas, Cruyff, Beckenbauer, Zidane, Messi, Ronaldo.

No game captures hope, despair, elation, defeat, joy, pain, glorious victory or shock as well as Football. Nothing ever will.

Where are you from Pete U? Because I'm from the US and I watch a fair amount of football, but I've never heard of Pusak, Cruyff, or Beckenbauer.

@vamosrammstein - ... uh, soccer... epic fail.

And if football means soccer to billions of non-americans, frankly I tend to agree.