I think there is something to this. This may sound crazy, but it's just too much. On Sundays there are games on from 9AM to midnight, that's 15 hours of football. There were 2 Monday night games for the first few weeks, the Thursday night games, and even Friday night games at the beginning of the season.
I know rabid fans are screaming "YEAH! 15 hours of football! Give me more" but it's really not. It feels like 1 hour of football and 14 hours of commercials and talking heads in the studio.
Injury? Cut to commercial.
Timeout? Commercial.
Challenge? You get 1 replay and then cut to commercial.