Ingredients:

• 1 DVR device of sorts
• 1 NFL football game, recorded/recording (at least 2/3rds through)
• 1.5 hours of time (to watch a 3.5 hour game)

This recipe is best used for anyone that enjoys watching football, but maybe can't dedicate the usual 3hrs. to the ritual. Especially if the team is not your team, but you suspect it may be a game worth watching. It's also useful if you don't particularly care for the inter-play dialogue supplied by the "color commentary." Believe it or not, I enjoy Sunday Night Football on NBC (gasp!) more than Monday Night because as lame as Madden can sometimes be, he and Michaels are brilliant compared to the guys on ESPN.

The key to this recipe is setting the fast-forward/skip-ahead amount to between 25-30 seconds (I set mine to 29 seconds). Also, you may wish to silence your phone if you fear you friends might call you during the game to celebrate (or lament) a touchdown that you haven't seen yet. If you're patient enough, start watching the game after about 2 hours have elapsed (games are usually 3-3.5 hrs.). Starting at this point and using this technique, you should be able to see all of the game-play, the halftime show (minus any sissy rock-concert crap) -- skipping commercials, and catch up to the last 2-minute warning, watching the end of the game live.

To start: begin watching and skip forward to gameplay. Then when ever the play is obviously dead, gets blown dead (you hear a whistle), or ball goes out of bounds -- skip forward once (25-30 seconds). This should skip the huddle and bring you to right up to all players at the line, ready for the next play. This method will only fall apart when the quarterback goes to a hurry-up offense (w/o huddle). Otherwise the methodical 40-second play clock is reduced to 10. The same quick work can be made of other parts of the game:

• 30-second timeout (w/o commercials) -- 2 skips forward
• Flag on the play -- 2-3 skips forward
• Coaches challenge -- 3 skips forward (minimum)

Tip: do not rewind unless you feel you've missed an important play (it will usually be obvious). I usually just keep charging ahead through commercials, stats screens, and sideline interviews until there is some gameplay.