Lines 627-32 contain a simile. How do you know it is a simile? What does it mean?

Adam posted in a thread about theoretical physics. in his post he refuted general relativity and cited a paper that was recently self-published by one person on her own personal website and had no references to other works in the field. which important question did adam not answer sufficiently when evaluating the cited paper?

This is the political, social, cultural, and economic 'time and place' surrounding the creation of a literary text.

On november 17, 1968, football fans across the united states sat glued to their televisions. a close game between two top teams—the new york jets and the oakland raiders—was being broadcast. when the jets pulled ahead with only fifty seconds remaining, viewers went wild. but then, just as the raiders were bringing the ball across midfield, the game disappeared from the screen! in its place, a previously scheduled children's movie, heidi, started playing. callers flooded the tv network's phone lines, but it was too late. the raiders scored two touchdowns in the very final moments—touchdowns that were unseen by all but west coast viewers. as a result of the interrupted event, dubbed "the heidi game," television networks began delaying their regularly scheduled programs until football games had ended.