Only 11 Minutes of Action in an NFL game

[Tolstoy]

Folks,

 

This is a story about either sheer marketing genius on the part of the NFL, or sheer stupidity on the part of the American public. We all know that NFL games have too many commercials, but this Wall Street Journal article brings out the numbers:

 

Average length of time the football is in play? 11 minutes

Average commercial time? 60 minutes

Average time with NFL players milling about or in huddle? 75 minutes

Cheerleaders? 3 seconds

 

What is amazing is that most of us, myself included, have made this coaching search a central preoccupation of our lives. A coach for a team that plays 11 minutes (8 minutes of it on defense!) on 16 Sundays throughout the year. I think I must be crazy.

 

Here is the article. See for yourself: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405...sreel_lifeStyle

[Beerball]

Amazing! Who's that Crippen guy that's mentioned in the article & how much did he pay you to repost this?

 

 

[Tasmo]

Folks,

 

This is a story about either sheer marketing genius on the part of the NFL, or sheer stupidity on the part of the American public. We all know that NFL games have too many commercials, but this Wall Street Journal article brings out the numbers:

 

Average length of time the football is in play? 11 minutes

Average commercial time? 60 minutes

Average time with NFL players milling about or in huddle? 75 minutes

Cheerleaders? 3 seconds

 

What is amazing is that most of us, myself included, have made this coaching search a central preoccupation of our lives. A coach for a team that plays 11 minutes (8 minutes of it on defense!) on 16 Sundays throughout the year. I think I must be crazy.

 

Here is the article. See for yourself: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405...sreel_lifeStyle

 

Football is a chess match like boxing. You need rest between periods of exertion. Strategy also plays in with the use of time. Oh yeah, and the NFL is a commercial based industry. If the Wall Street Journal wants continuous action they can watch table tennis and eat sugar cookies. pansies.

[KRC]

Amazing! Who's that Crippen guy that's mentioned in the article & how much did he pay you to repost this?

 

 

 

That Crippen guy is annoying, isn't he?

[nucci]

One of the best things about football is the anticipation of the next play. The huddle between plays, both teams lining up, the shifting and adjusting of players....it's just not about the actual plays that make the game exciting.

[sabres...yawn]

There are too many commercials-especially if you are at the game.

But the 11 minute thing?

C'mon.

That's like saying their is no drama, no anticipation, no pressure in golf because the ball is only in the air for a few seconds at a time.

 

Btw, no one HAS to watch it.

[CodeMonkey]

Football is a chess match like boxing. You need rest between periods of exertion. Strategy also plays in with the use of time. Oh yeah, and the NFL is a commercial based industry. If the Wall Street Journal wants continuous action they can watch table tennis and eat sugar cookies. pansies.

I love the chess match argument every time I hear it. A chess match played by guys who mostly do not have the intelligence to graduate high school if it wasn't for sports bias in the schools. For continuous action I prefer hockey or soccer to table tennis myself.

 

American football is what it is, a sport with small bursts of action over a long period of time. Along the lines of the other favorite American sport, baseball. This is the kind of sport Americans traditionally enjoy. No reason to apologize for that or rationalize it by trying to relate it to a game that takes a lot of intelligence like chess. It is a mega commercial success in the United States and has been for a long time. Hockey is more popular than American football worldwide, and obviously soccer is by far the most popular sport in the world. But in the US, American football is number one and I think will be for a long time to come. And no study showing how little action there actually is will change that.

[zazie]

There are too many commercials-especially if you are at the game.

But the 11 minute thing?

C'mon.

That's like saying their is no drama, no anticipation, no pressure in golf because the ball is only in the air for a few seconds at a time.

 

Btw, no one HAS to watch it.

Where I live the games are shown commercial free it is a blessing but you see the downtime really clearly; the station logo comes on for mintes at a time.

 

Then, they re-show the games several times without any commercials or cuts its great like TIVO without having to physically jump over the commercials.

 

By the way, the NFL "gift" commercial time to Haiti, was that any good? I felt the whole idea was very self serving they should have given cahs money rather than 'free' commercial time in order to ask the fans to pony up (so they would not have to).

[CodeMonkey]

By the way, the NFL "gift" commercial time to Haiti, was that any good? I felt the whole idea was very self serving they should have given cahs money rather than 'free' commercial time in order to ask the fans to pony up (so they would not have to).

I suspect by showing the commercials they got a lot more money donated than would have been given as cash. It was probably the smart thing to do, and the NFL got some good PR out of it as well. Everybody wins.

[zazie]

I suspect by showing the commercials they got a lot more money donated than would have been given as cash. It was probably the smart thing to do, and the NFL got some good PR out of it as well. Everybody wins.

Lets hope the moiney gets spent where it is needed and is not all grafted away

[RJ (not THAT RJ)]

The WSJ article is fun, but it does not really tell us anything we did not know. All sports are essentially stupid and pointless--gloriously, delightftully so. What gives them meaning is not the few moments of true excitement, but the emotions and tension and anticipation that fans invest in them. Otherwise, it is just genetic freaks in Halloween costumes.

[dollars 2 donuts]

Folks,

 

This is a story about either sheer marketing genius on the part of the NFL, or sheer stupidity on the part of the American public. We all know that NFL games have too many commercials, but this Wall Street Journal article brings out the numbers:

 

Average length of time the football is in play? 11 minutes

Average commercial time? 60 minutes

Average time with NFL players milling about or in huddle? 75 minutes

Cheerleaders? 3 seconds

 

What is amazing is that most of us, myself included, have made this coaching search a central preoccupation of our lives. A coach for a team that plays 11 minutes (8 minutes of it on defense!) on 16 Sundays throughout the year. I think I must be crazy.

 

Here is the article. See for yourself: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405...sreel_lifeStyle

 

 

This stuff always comes up every few years. Fine.

 

However, can someone do me a favor whenever they bring this up about football? Please time how long the ball is in play in baseball, and i mean in play, not the pitcher's wind-up, but anytime the ball is moving around.

 

Thank you.

[CodeMonkey]

This stuff always comes up every few years. Fine.

 

However, can someone do me a favor whenever they bring this up about football? Please time how long the ball is in play in baseball, and i mean in play, not the pitcher's wind-up, but anytime the ball is moving around.

 

Thank you.

Never seen it analyzed, but it almost has to be less than 11 minutes. Probably far less.

But you should look the other way too. Hockey and soccer would be much more than 11 minutes. And although they are second tier sports in the US, they are not in the rest of the world. The great thing about football and baseball is they lend themselves beautifully to commercial television. Not true of either hockey or soccer.

[Sisyphean Bills]

The cheerleaders definitely need much more time. Heck, some of them are damn good athletes, which is more than we can say about ...

[YellowLinesandArmadillos]

Which is why I have been slowly moving over to hockey. The between periods is long, but I have time to cook wings, make a sandwich grab an adult beverage, pay attention to my wife... whatever. None of those things are long enough except at half time for football. The ball in the air thing is a little over the top especially coming from an organization owned by Rupert Murdock ans Fox.

 

If you want football action, go to a Division IA game... lot less commercial breaks and often some really good football.

[dollars 2 donuts]

Never seen it analyzed, but it almost has to be less than 11 minutes. Probably far less.

But you should look the other way too. Hockey and soccer would be much more than 11 minutes. And although they are second tier sports in the US, they are not in the rest of the world. The great thing about football and baseball is they lend themselves beautifully to commercial television. Not true of either hockey or soccer.

 

 

I hear completely, CodeMonkey, but normally when I hear this come up I smell baseball purists, maybe b/c a few years ago I used to hear them bring it up on tv or radio.

 

Additionally, I am personally not going to be hard on football due to the extreme physical nature of the game. I think 11 minutes of 300lb men running 4.5 forties bashing people in the head is more than enough time.

[C.Biscuit97]

And there is constant action in soccer yet it bores the hell out of me. Football is the greatest sport ever invented and it's not really close.

[Tolstoy]

And there is constant action in soccer yet it bores the hell out of me. Football is the greatest sport ever invented and it's not really close.

 

 

I love American football, even though the stats I posted make me wonder why I like it so much. But I also love watching top-level soccer, especially the world cup. I may be wrong, but I think that part of the appeal in a sport is that other people care about it. So, if nobody cared about football in the country, I suspect my enjoyment of the game would be diminished greatly. Conversely, if everyone was excited about the LA Galaxy vs Real Salt Lake MLS final, and everyone was watching every play with anticipation, I would enjoy it all the more. As it is, I don't watch much MLS soccer.

[CodeMonkey]

Football is the greatest sport ever invented and it's not really close.

That opinion depends largely upon how, and where, you were raised my friend.

Like Tolstoy, I also enjoy watching American football (though less and less each passing year except for the Bills) but when I analyze it I have no explanation as to why except that I was raised on it.

 

I love American football, even though the stats I posted make me wonder why I like it so much. But I also love watching top-level soccer, especially the world cup. I may be wrong, but I think that part of the appeal in a sport is that other people care about it. So, if nobody cared about football in the country, I suspect my enjoyment of the game would be diminished greatly. Conversely, if everyone was excited about the LA Galaxy vs Real Salt Lake MLS final, and everyone was watching every play with anticipation, I would enjoy it all the more. As it is, I don't watch much MLS soccer.

I cannot stand to watch MLS at all. It is like watching AHL hockey, mildly amusing but nothing like watching the truly good teams play. That being said, MLS is getting better and hopefully will be worth watching in my lifetime.

[ajzepp]

That being said, MLS is getting better and hopefully will be worth watching in my lifetime.

 

 

I'm encouraged by the number of American players who are garnering interest from the European clubs. The more home grown players we can get into the big time, the better. We have a pretty good U-20 team, and I think the more they see American players making good money in Europe, the more attractive the game will become for them.

 

As for the NFL, as long as it doesn't FEEL like there are only 11 mins of actual play, I'm cool....and it doesn't feel that way at all. Baseball, on the other hand...