Yeah, I agree - some of those live sports like BasketBall and Football [American & Soccer kind] can be real boring to watch live.
I recall a couple of years ago when the Superbowl was on live TV, [Superbowl is always on a local public holiday here and the main Pay TV carrier runs it live].
Unfortunately we don't get to see the half-time advertisements you guys see - only the (generally boring) half-time show.
The game started about 12pm (midday) local time, I started watching it (and don't get me wrong - I *like* American Football BTW).
I got bored after about 40 minutes of not much happening, went upstairs and did some other stuff I had to do (such as vacuuming the house, having some lunch, a short sleep after lunch etc).
Every time I passed the TV, for the next 3 or so hours the Superbowl was still on (and every time I went past the TV set all the players were standing around waiting for stuff to happen),
game didn't end to nearly 4 hours after it started.
I like American Football, but only when its replayed/ in highlight only - the live stuff is just too much of generally not much happening.
I think with a Tivo/Replay you could zip to each play, watch the play [5-10 seconds worth], then zip forward again to the next play, and have watched the whole game in about 30 minutes.
Therefore you could record the superbowl on your Tivo, turn up about 3+ hours after it started, sit down, watch the whole game in 30 minutes (plus replay the plays you liked), and still be able to talk knowingly about the game to all your colleagues, co-workers etc the next day, and still be 3+ hours ahead.
If there was ever a good case to get a Tivo, then I don't know what better reasons there are.
I also make the same comments about most Soccer (Football) matches I've ever seen - watching the (soccer) ball go endlessly up and down the pitch without a goal being scored is boring to the extreme.
Its nearly as bad as an American Football match with no touchdowns or a Baseball game with no home runs.