The football supporter is an interesting specie. The sheer amount of time we devote to our passion relegates us to individuals that can be described as borderline obsessive, half psycho, quite anxious and certainly neurotic. Such is the grasp that the beautiful game holds on the strings of our lives that our heads turn and our interests peak with every single match, update, tweet or highlight. These individual “tugs” can be quite time consuming as I assume you realize if you frequent this site.

In our continued efforts to dissect and analyze ourselves, the football supporter, this week we’ll take a look at how many football matches or how many hours of football we all watch in a week.

If you added up each and every hour of football you watched per week, what would it be? With outlets aplenty such as FSC, FSC+, Sky Sports, GolTV, ESPN, ESPN360.com and FoxSoccer.tv, there’s obviously a lot of football on offer and a variety of different ways to watch it.

Keep that number in mind and add to it time spent watching Match of the Day, Premier League Review Show, Fox Soccer Report or any other weekly highlight shows. Still with me? Now add that number to hours spent searching the web (and reading fine articles such as the ones from EPL Talk), checking Twitter feeds and listening to podcasts.

If you’re honest, what did you come up with? Do you notice certain trends in your football viewing? More specifically, after you view the Premier League, do you then switch to La Liga, the German Bundesliga or Serie A to continue your pursuit of the ultimate football fix?

If I’m being honest, the number of hours spent per week  immersing myself in football, football news and football culture beyond exceeds my normal 40 hour work week and in some cases will double it. Most of you are right there with me in feeling that “pull” towards football. I am a fan of other sports, but I don’t gravitate towards any other league or sport like I do Premier League football. Causal viewing of American sports is mostly all I can take, or I simply run out of time. There’s often not enough hours in a week to keep up with world football, much less other sports that can be just as time consuming.

I’ll also have to add into the mix the countless hours I spend writing per week and if it’s a post or article worth anything, I’ll also add in the time spent rewriting and proof reading until I get something I’m happy with that has a clear message.

We’ve touched on it before, but most of us have spouses or family members that allow us the time and money to pursue our passion. If you haven’t done it recently, take the time (between matches) this week to thank that family member for the time they allow each week. It’s definitely a balancing act of sorts, or if you don’t have a significant other you have to share time with, then consider yourself lucky (or lonely).

Feel free to share below with the rest of the EPL Talk community the number of matches you watch per week or number of hours spent watching football per week. Check the comments section throughout the day to see where you rank among other readers of EPL Talk and enjoy your football.