Super Bowl talk costing employers $800 million

There is a story out by Reuters that says

"Excitement over what has become the biggest single sporting event of the year in the United States may actually end up costing employers some $800 million in lost productivity the week before the big game, a report said yesterday."

The $800 million figure was calculated based on the amount of time employees would take to discuss the game, surf the internet for news about the game and shop for new TVs.

Here's a link to the article in BostonGlobe.com: Firms could face $800m tab for pre-game pontificating

In my opinion, this is really stupid analysis. Employees are not necessarily taking time out of their workday to talk about the game, instead they are replacing what they talk about normally with talk about the game. They might as well say that bowel movements cost employees $25 billion a year and people should stop going to the bathrooms during work hours. Based on what the NFL is doing via the U.S. DOJ lately, I admit, I'd find guilty pleasure in seeing U.S. companies suing the NFL for costing them some money :-)