Yes, it’s laughable to consider football as “always on”. Of the 4 major sports in the USA, it has the shortest season, the fewest games, and is the only one where there are literally no live games for 4 days per week for most of the season.
On the other hand, there is more news and discussion about football per game than other sports. You have to fill out those 6 days of non-football with stuff about the team to keep the listener/reader/watcher engaged.
And, the NFL has managed to make itself into a year-round sports news machine.
The Super Bowl was in early February, and the regular season doesn’t start until early September. So, that’s 7 months off, right? Not so!
- Under non-COVID circumstances, the league would have held the “combine” (a series of workouts and drills for former college players who will be in the upcoming draft) in February. That yields days of discussion and coverage. (Instead, this year, there will be smaller workouts scheduled.)
- Free agency officially began, so there are a lot of veteran players changing teams right now, and there has been a ton of fan discussion about it for the past week.
- The draft itself is at the end of April. There will be weeks of coverage and speculation leading up to the actual draft, which has become a three-day media circus.
- Then, there is a relative lull in May and June, except for some minicamps (offseason meetings and practices for players and coaches), and a few league meetings (owners, general managers, etc.).
- Training camps start in late July, with preseason games in August.