11 minutes of actual play and people still get season and career ending injuries. Football is a badass sport.
Hockey is good too. Baseball though is kinda boring for me. It's fun to play but not so fun to watch, which is the opposite of football which is the cause of many personal concussions, intense migraines until I quit (back then a head injury was treated by the coach saying "walk it off". Yep we were idiots 20+ years ago. I had to stop playing entirely) and possible brain damage as a result.
Anquan Boldin knocked out and shattered his sinus:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P--cSlHsVjk
Joe Theismann. I don't even need to describe it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHCXNt4P8Xg. This makes me cringe even now.
Hockey has lots of good hits and pretty intense games that can leave you breathless, but it's just too Canadian to be taken seriously in the US. It's probably my second favorite team sport though.
On a related note (not to the OP or anyone here): I laugh at people who criticize football because pads are worn. People would be
killed if they didn't, or else the game would be nowhere near as intense. It's a collision sport, 250lb+ men crashing into each other every single play. Without pads they'd either die or be unable to do it.