# Average NFL game 16 minutes of play? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [February 8, 2010, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-nfl-game-16-minutes-of-play/528104 "2010-02-08T02:41:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-nfl-game-16-minutes-of-play/528104/41 "2010-02-09T16:15:02Z")
Sports aside for the moment, as anyone ever watched a movie in fast-forward? If you set it to, like, x1.5, you can barely tell the difference but the movie’s over in 1:20 instead of 2 hours. Wonderful fun! ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-nfl-game-16-minutes-of-play/528104/42 "2010-02-09T17:24:01Z")
> [@DanBlather](#): > > My English cousin was teasing me about the high scores in American football and basketball. I asked him what his last village cricket team score was: 126-8 to 125-6 so that shut him up for a while. Cricket makes baseball seem like F1 racing. We hear a lot about soccer hooligans, but I understand cricket fans can become quite cranky too if you wake them up. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-nfl-game-16-minutes-of-play/528104/43 "2010-02-09T17:31:16Z")
When I watch football on my DVR, I like to skip from shortly after the previous play ends to when the center touches the ball. There’s some pre-snap stuff that I count as action. With hockey, the only times I can fast forward when the clock is running is after a dump-in and line change or a clear by a penalty-kill unit. Even then it’s only a few seconds. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2010, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-nfl-game-16-minutes-of-play/528104/44 "2010-02-10T01:05:15Z")
> [@Tony](#): > > Although there are only ten or fifteen minutes of action in a football game, the rest of the time is also part of the game, such as preparing for the next play. I don’t mind reviews, time outs, those are not the problem. The problem is the fact that football has turned into something to fit around all those stupid, useless, meaningless commercials, and not the other way around. There is no reason, none whatsoever, why there should be four thirty second commercials between changes of possession. Oh yeah, “the players need to be paid.” Whatever. > > Never mind the actual game time. How long would a football game really take if there was no such thing as television? Maybe 90 minutes, two hours tops. There’s at least 90 minutes of commercials? > > My routine is to DVR the game, watch it in delay and then zip through those dumb interruptions. I wouldn’t mind a two or three minute break between quarters, but each and every “tv timeout?” That’s absurd. You make many unwarranted assumptions. There is well over two hours of in-game broadcast during any given NFL broadcast. Other than the breaks between quarters, all commercial breaks are 90 seconds or less. I edit down Giants games to remove commercials, in-game live commercials, all replay timeouts, anything slow between plays, and everything except snap-to-whistle on around half of the opponent’s plays. I’m still left with 90 minutes per game. In the 2007 postseason when they won the Superbowl, the four playoff games take up 2 hours each on my tape(s). That’s two hours of broadcast worthy of being preserved, and that’s not counting the majority of time in those long, sustained Cowboys drives or the long sustained Patriots drives in the Superbowl. Most of an NFL broadcast is devoted to the game. Your estimates are far less charitable than the reality merits. ---
**Author:** ![jimpatro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b9e5f3/32.png) [@jimpatro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimpatro)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2010, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-nfl-game-16-minutes-of-play/528104/45 "2010-02-10T03:36:00Z")
> [@IAmNotSpartacus](#): > > No, it was meant to be a thread about how much play there is during the game. I assume one would understand this had they read the thread title. The clock runs when the ball is put into play. That means that the offense can advance the ball towards the defense’s goal. Which can include a man in motion before the snap, the defense adjusting in reaction to the offense’s lineup, the offense lining up and snapping the ball without a huddle etc. A lot can and does happen during regulation play. Thread title read. 60 minutes of play. ---
**Author:** ![PopeJewish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@PopeJewish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PopeJewish)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2010, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-nfl-game-16-minutes-of-play/528104/46 "2010-02-10T04:36:12Z")
> [@2sense](#): > > This. I really like basketball but it’s much less cerebral than football. When you stop and reset after every play it gives more time for complex strategy. In basketball you can come down the floor and run the pick and roll time and time again. Try such a simple strategy in football and you will get your ass handed to you. Plus the downtime is perfect for instant replays. Basketball is better on DVR because I can replay stuff to see what I missed. The big slowness of NFL is the TV timeouts. Do away with them, by all means! this is simply not true. A stop between every play does not equate to their being more strategy, not by any means. In soccer and basketball and such (possibly much more in soccer than basketball, I honestly don’t know) the players aren’t moving down the field randomly, hoping to end up in a decent position. They’re running set plays that they’ve run time and time and time again. The ball is always moved down the field in a certain, triangular pattern. Everyone has routes they run depending on where the ball is, where the defenders and attackers are, and where the ball is most likely to go. Saying that just because there aren’t nearly as many stoppages means their’s less strategy is just ignorance, the players just have to be better at thinking of the strategy on the fly > [@EllisDee](#): > > That’s not true, though. The ball isn’t always live in soccer despite the clock never stopping. That’s the whole idea behind the concept of “extra time”, which to me seems even crazier. Soccer is a strange exception. Stoppage time is generally only added on for injuries, not the ball going out of bounds. However, the clock DOES stop, just often not the clock they show you. In soccer, only the ref keeps the official time. The time on the screen isn’t exact. Strange, outdated rule, but it still exists ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2010, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-nfl-game-16-minutes-of-play/528104/47 "2010-02-10T05:45:25Z")
> [@jimpatro](#): > > The clock runs when the ball is put into play. That means that the offense can advance the ball towards the defense’s goal. Which can include a man in motion before the snap, the defense adjusting in reaction to the offense’s lineup, the offense lining up and snapping the ball without a huddle etc. A lot can and does happen during regulation play. > > Thread title read. 60 minutes of play. Well done, Jimmy. Now run along. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2010, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-nfl-game-16-minutes-of-play/528104/48 "2010-02-10T19:17:40Z")
> [@Chessic\_Sense](#): > > Sports aside for the moment, as anyone ever watched a movie in fast-forward? If you set it to, like, x1.5, you can barely tell the difference but the movie’s over in 1:20 instead of 2 hours. Wonderful fun! Yes, that’s how I watch _24_ getting the 24 hour season down to 16 hours (or rather 12 or so, since the DVD’s don’t have the commercials). But I find _24_ tedious and silly. For a movie I really like, I almost might want to slow it down. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2010, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-nfl-game-16-minutes-of-play/528104/49 "2010-02-10T20:05:32Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > Years ago I remember reading an article touting a new [MLB.com](http://MLB.com) feature: condensed games. They only show the last pitch of every at-bat. I seem to remember them claiming it only took 12 minutes to watch an entire game, but of course you had to pay a fee. Had that service been free I would have put in a legitimate effort to become an MLB fan by watching all 162 Mets condensed games that year. > > I used to love when MSG ran Rangers rewind, showing the “best” hour of every Rangers game, broadcast at 11pm every game night. I must have watched like 40 or 50 the first season I discovered them, and it was friggin’ awesome. I felt very connected to the Rangers that year and that could have turned into quite fanship. But they stopped doing it the next year so I gave up on hockey. > > The NFL network does shorty versions of all football games, which rocks. In addition to snap-to-whistle coverage, they also throw in some key replays, officials calling penalties and reviews, etc… End up being 30 minutes for a game. Fantastic service, that. They even do their best to avoid cutting in the middle of an announcer’s sentence. (They use the actual broadcast footage.) That’s one of the factors that plays into how I personally edit my Giants tapes, though I only “shorty” the other team’s sustained successful drives. Thus, any given Giants game in my library is around 90 minutes. (The playoff run in 2007 ended up around 2 hours per game because so much of them was compelling.) MSG still has this feature. Looking at the TV Schedule, Tonights Rangers vs Predators game is from 7 to 930 PM and The “Rangers in 60” is from 1030 to 1130 PM, followed by a complete rebroadcast of the whole game, followed by another “Rangers in 60” from 230 to 330 AM ---
**Author:** ![Piker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@Piker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Piker)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2010, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-nfl-game-16-minutes-of-play/528104/50 "2010-02-10T23:02:50Z")
> [@PopeJewish](#): > > Soccer is a strange exception. Stoppage time is generally only added on for injuries, not the ball going out of bounds. However, the clock DOES stop, just often not the clock they show you. In soccer, only the ref keeps the official time. The time on the screen isn’t exact. Strange, outdated rule, but it still exists I think back in '98, FIFA included as part of its stats package for the World Cup the time the ball was play during each match. IIRC, the times ranged from 55-65 minutes per game. I don’t think the 11 minutes of NFL football per match surprised anybody. I’ve been watching my Niners for years and I would have guessed around 15 or so. I think the shocking statistic is the amount of time spent on commercials/promos. I’ve had a theory that the league adds more time for commercials every few years, slow enough that few would notice. The games just seem a lot slower than they did 10-15 years ago. I wonder if someone has run these stats against older, but post-merger, NFL broadcasts. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2010, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-nfl-game-16-minutes-of-play/528104/51 "2010-02-11T17:18:34Z")
> [@PopeJewish](#): > > this is simply not true. A stop between every play does not equate to their being more strategy, not by any means. Yes it does, actually. That’s exactly what it means. Why is there no equivalent to the 1000 page NFL playbook in soccer? ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2010, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-nfl-game-16-minutes-of-play/528104/52 "2010-02-11T17:38:42Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > Why is there no equivalent to the 1000 page NFL playbook in soccer? Because strategy in soccer does not depend on enacting fairly rigid set pieces, but depends (partly) on the individual players reading the game as it progresses. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2010, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-nfl-game-16-minutes-of-play/528104/53 "2010-02-11T18:05:16Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > Because strategy in soccer does not depend on enacting fairly rigid set pieces, but depends (partly) on the individual players reading the game as it progresses. So you’re saying that continual resetting doesn’t mean there’s more possibility for strategy, but soccer doesn’t have involved playbooks because the action doesn’t continually reset? You see the contradiction, right? It’s worth pointing out that NFL football has quite a bit of tactical depth. What you’re describing in soccer sounds like tactical depth, not strategy. I’m not saying there’s no strategy in soccer. I’m just saying there isn’t much strategy in soccer compared to football. Like, for example, there is definitely strategy in backgammon, but not as much as there is in chess. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2010, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-nfl-game-16-minutes-of-play/528104/54 "2010-02-11T18:09:27Z")
I’m just saying that they are hard to compare, and that a 1,000-page book does not mean there’s more depth in American football. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2010, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-nfl-game-16-minutes-of-play/528104/55 "2010-02-13T06:47:32Z")
> [@Tony](#): > > Although there are only ten or fifteen minutes of action in a football game, the rest of the time is also part of the game, such as preparing for the next play. I don’t mind reviews, time outs, those are not the problem. The problem is the fact that football has turned into something to fit around all those stupid, useless, meaningless commercials, and not the other way around. There is no reason, none whatsoever, why there should be four thirty second commercials between changes of possession. Oh yeah, “the players need to be paid.” Whatever. The point about preparing for the next play is an excellent one. Americans _like_ having breaks in the action in football and baseball, because having a moment to think about what the next play ought to be is part of the fun of those games. Essentially the same effect applies in the last “minutes” of a close basketball game, too, where nearly every play is punctuated by a timeout or other stoppage. ---
**Author:** ![Piker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@Piker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Piker)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2010, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-nfl-game-16-minutes-of-play/528104/56 "2010-02-13T20:25:10Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > The point about preparing for the next play is an excellent one. Americans _like_ having breaks in the action in football and baseball, because having a moment to think about what the next play ought to be is part of the fun of those games. Essentially the same effect applies in the last “minutes” of a close basketball game, too, where nearly every play is punctuated by a timeout or other stoppage. I’m hesitant to say “Americans like having breaks because they appreciate strategy” when it seems to me that “Americans like having breaks because they have been weened on sports that stop play so the television broadcaster can sell beer and cars”. It just seems like an historical accident brought by two factors: 1. that the first nationally popular professional sport, baseball, naturally has a lot of breaks from action; and 2. the United States never really had popular public broadcasting for entertainment, unlike a lot of European countries; meaning that the stations couldn’t go for 45 minutes at a time without showing any advertisements, like the BBC (for example) did. I think those two factors have a lot more to do with why American sports have a lot of breaks from gameplay than anything having to do with the “American psyche”. ---
**Author:** ![Piker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@Piker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Piker)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2010, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-nfl-game-16-minutes-of-play/528104/57 "2010-02-13T20:27:02Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > Why is there no equivalent to the 1000 page NFL playbook in soccer? Thank god. ---
**Author:** ![Dahu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dahu/32/3416_2.png) [@Dahu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dahu)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2010, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-nfl-game-16-minutes-of-play/528104/58 "2010-02-13T22:59:27Z")
I’m wondering what the equivalent stats are for tennis? A few years back when Wimbledon was all serve & volley, a men’s 5-set 4-hour match would actually have the ball in play, what, 20 minutes maybe? (Have googled, can’t find the answer!). ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2010, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-nfl-game-16-minutes-of-play/528104/59 "2010-02-15T04:28:52Z")
> [@Piker](#): > > I’m hesitant to say “Americans like having breaks because they appreciate strategy” I have long argued this to be true. One datapoint is the popularity of televised poker, though it has waned quite a bit from its heyday. Was televised poker ever popular in European countries? ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2010, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-nfl-game-16-minutes-of-play/528104/60 "2010-02-15T12:30:48Z")
For an even worse ratio, the Kentucky Derby lasts about 2 minutes, but there can be 90 minutes or more of coverage. I mean, I can understand having stories on the prominent horses / jockeys / owners / trainers, but there seems to be lots of filler. (not that I’m forced to watch, I just catcth the last 15 minutes) Brian [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-nfl-game-16-minutes-of-play/528104.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-nfl-game-16-minutes-of-play/528104.md?page=4)