Football - 11 minutes of action!

[HolyRoller10]

According to a Wall Street Journal study of four recent broadcasts, and similar estimates by researchers, the average amount of time the ball is in play on the field during an NFL game is about 11 minutes.

Now...before some of you jump on the bandwagon and say see!

A lot of the inaction is (at least for me) part of football - ergo, part of "the action"...sure, TV timeouts have gotten ridiculous - especially in the college game...but, the stop-and start nature is - well, just football...which is part of the joy...being given the time to be a HC or armchair quarterback at home...and digest the previous play, analyze and hyperventilate over the upcoming situation and to predict and argue for the next course of action as any good general would do.

In fact, the average telecast devotes 56% more time to showing replays than the actual live event.

But hey, ho...what would we do without replays...I don't want to assume anything the officials tell me. I want to see the nitty-gritty...this is where football soars over soccer. Replays give you the full experience...replays provide the necessary info or often just fan jubilation re-enactments.

Still...11 minutes!

So what do the networks do with the other 174 minutes in a typical broadcast? Not surprisingly, commercials take up about an hour. As many as 75 minutes, or about 60% of the total air time, excluding commercials, is spent on shots of players huddling, standing at the line of scrimmage or just generally milling about between snaps. In the four broadcasts The Journal studied, injured players got six more seconds of camera time than celebrating players. While the network announcers showed up on screen for just 30 seconds, shots of the head coaches and referees took up about 7% of the average show.

This, I could do without...I mean, we need a few commercials for beer bathroom breaks...but not overkill.

But even the different networks choose what and when and how much of what is shown during the down time:

In this sample of games, the networks showed some significant differences. ESPN showed 24 minutes worth of replays in its game, which was 41% more than the average of the other three networks. Jay Rothman, ESPN's senior coordinating producer for Monday Night Football, attributes this to the presence of Minnesota's star quarterback, Brett Favre. Mr. Favre, he says, is a "move-the-meter guy," who warrants a lot of extra attention.

In its game, NBC devoted more than twice as much time to nongame video packages as its competitors (decades-old pictures of John Madden with his wife, anyone?). CBS devoted 40 seconds to showing Atlanta's kicker, Matt Bryant, warming up to make a kick, which was more time than the other three networks devoted to kickers combined. (The kick was blocked).

In its game, Fox showed about 37% fewer replays than the other networks. Fox also showed about 16% more shots than the other networks of players on the sidelines.

Great article....to read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...055561406.html

[b182dammit]

It is exactly why it is a TV Sport. Heck I love to watch, I love to tailgate, but the games I have been to live in the US, and especially here, had I not been tipsy...borrrrrrrriiiiinnnnnggggg! Of the 11 minutes, say you have a lower endzone seat, you probably only know what the heck is going on for about 2 of them.

[Johanvil]

Well we all knew it would be close to that amount of time of pure action.

I know networks pay millions/billions of dollars to get the rights to broadcast NFL games but it doesn't make it less nauseating for the public having to watch all these commercials.

[my_friend_goo]

Once Chip Kelly's up-tempo scheme paves the way for the new NFL, that figure's going to be blown out of the water by a staggering additional minute. Brace yourselves, folks.

[phuqertrfc]

Good article.

This does however highlight why it is sometimes very difficult to convert people in the UK to NFL fans.

I had a discussion with my brother about the NFL a while ago and he claimed that it was too much stop start for him.
I argued that a lot of sports that are popular in the UK are just as much stop start.
Tennis for example, has minutes sometimes between each point. The players towel themselves down after every point nowadays, and then the server has to select which of the identical balls he is going to use and then has to bounce the ball for 30 seconds before eventually serving.

I guess the difference though, is that you can get a rally that lasts about 20 - 30 shots in tennis, but you could just as easily get an ace that lasts less than a second.

Cricket is another one where you have more stops in play than actual action.

It is probably the main reason why the NFL will never surpass sports like football and rugby in the UK in terms of popularity.

[YorkshireBucs]

Originally Posted by phuqertrfc

Good article.

This does however highlight why it is sometimes very difficult to convert people in the UK to NFL fans.

I had a discussion with my brother about the NFL a while ago and he claimed that it was too much stop start for him.
I argued that a lot of sports that are popular in the UK are just as much stop start.
Tennis for example, has minutes sometimes between each point. The players towel themselves down after every point nowadays, and then the server has to select which of the identical balls he is going to use and then has to bounce the ball for 30 seconds before eventually serving.

I guess the difference though, is that you can get a rally that lasts about 20 - 30 shots in tennis, but you could just as easily get an ace that lasts less than a second.

Cricket is another one where you have more stops in play than actual action.

It is probably the main reason why the NFL will never surpass sports like football and rugby in the UK in terms of popularity.

Add golf to that list, from pulling back for the swing to the ball stopping how long is it, 7-10 seconds ? Probably less actually, they walk to the ball more than they actually "play" golf.

[CJayDixon]

Originally Posted by YorkshireBucs

Add golf to that list, from pulling back for the swing to the ball stopping how long is it, 7-10 seconds ? Probably less actually, they walk to the ball more than they actually "play" golf.

True, but quite like the NFL, actually 'playing Golf' is only about 10% physical activity, and the other 90% is thinking, planning etc.

I actually think sports that are more tactical in that aspect become more entertaining to watch than endless boring action that quite often consumes Football and Rugby matches. That isn't a slur towards Football either, I actually love most sports, but each have their own appeals.

[phuqertrfc]

Originally Posted by CJayDixon

True, but quite like the NFL, actually 'playing Golf' is only about 10% physical activity, and the other 90% is thinking, planning etc.

I actually think sports that are more tactical in that aspect become more entertaining to watch than endless boring action that quite often consumes Football and Rugby matches. That isn't a slur towards Football either, I actually love most sports, but each have their own appeals.

This is very true, but with these type of sports, it requires you to have an understanding of not just the rules, but of the strategies, the tactics, the gamesmanship etc, to really appreciate and enjoy it.

After all, most of the time, there is no action.
I love the fact that there is so much time between plays in the NFL that almost everything that happens is scrutinised to the nth degree.

Golf on the other hand isn't quite the same as a TV sport, because there are so many players on the course at various holes, that as soon as one player takes his shot, they go to another player, so when you are watching on telly, it is pretty much non stop. (as non stop as golf can be :-))

When you watch an NFL game, you are just watching that one game, so when there is a break in play, you are either watching adverts or listening to the experts go over the previous play.

This type of sport though, doesn't really appeal to someone who was just flicking between channels and happened upon it.

[Piemaster]

Interesting.

I would be interested to see how this compares with other sports though. How long would a soccer match be if you removed all the time the ball was out of play? I'm guessing more than 11 minutes but a lot less than 90.

But then, while there may only be 11 minutes of action in a football game, that is eleven very intense minutes. There are very few 'wasted seconds' in that 11 minutes except maybe while a punt is in the air or something. If you take the above soccer game and also remove the time where the ball is being passed cross the back four, or the goalkeeper has it in his hands, or all the other times where the ball is technically 'in play' but the game is not being advanced in any way and you are probably not far from the 11 minutes in a football game.

Food for thought anyway.

[CJayDixon]

Originally Posted by phuqertrfc

This is very true, but with these type of sports, it requires you to have an understanding of not just the rules, but of the strategies, the tactics, the gamesmanship etc, to really appreciate and enjoy it.

After all, most of the time, there is no action.
I love the fact that there is so much time between plays in the NFL that almost everything that happens is scrutinised to the nth degree.

Golf on the other hand isn't quite the same as a TV sport, because there are so many players on the course at various holes, that as soon as one player takes his shot, they go to another player, so when you are watching on telly, it is pretty much non stop. (as non stop as golf can be :-))

When you watch an NFL game, you are just watching that one game, so when there is a break in play, you are either watching adverts or listening to the experts go over the previous play.

This type of sport though, doesn't really appeal to someone who was just flicking between channels and happened upon it.

Definitely... It's because of this, that my Girlfriend actually really likes watching the Golf and the NFL with me, because it was never an issue for me to explain what was happening due to the stoppage times between the 'action'. She is now happy to stay up to silly hours to watch those 2 sports, however, wouldn't sit for 5 minutes to watch Football, which requires more constant attention, as apparently I ignore her for the whole game