As for "best TV sport period" -- compare 100 million viewers for the Superbowl (half of which just want to see the commercials) with over 1 billion viewers for the World Cup.
Thats a ridiculous argument, as American football isn't near as popular world wide as Soccer, which has little to do with how good of a TV sport it is. Give half the world a rooting interest in the NFL, and it would blow away soccer's viewership.
Nearly double your world cup figure watched the Olympics, because it has even more of a widespread appeal. That doesn't mean that swimming relays are a better TV product than Soccer, or football, or basketball, or even baseball.
More people watched Transformers 2 last night than saw The Wrestler, does that make it a better movie just because it was able to garner a larger audience?
Stoppage in play may not be your thing, but for TV its perfect. It gives ample time to the lowest common denominator to digest what they saw, see it again from other angles, and have commentary on it. And the violence in football cannot be matched by any other sport. Those two together make it the perfect TV sport.
Watching live? Id say Soccer is better, due to your reasons.