How much play time is in an NFL game? A lot of it is commercial time. A lot of it is not. I’ve seen some games where there are 3 minutes of actual action and its half time and its obvious that there’s not going to be much action. And if there is, its not as much as you would think. I know I have a lot of football–I’m a 40-yr old dad of three boys and I still throw football around. I still watch the Patriots, Cowboys and Buccaneers but last year I basically stopped watching NFL until I could afford the CBS Sports Pass. And I still love American football, but I just can’t stand the commercials.
So you can imagine my surprise when I started scrolling through NFL games and noticed that there were only 13 minutes of actual action in Week 15 against Tennessee. And there was only 13 minutes of commercials. I thought, “wow, that must be a lot of action”. But there isn’t a ton of action in football, and the amount of action in football is often more about positioning and reacting to plays than it is about actually creating scoring opportunities. I’ve never been that big of a fan of American football, but I figured I’d give it another shot.
How much play time is in an NFL game? How much is on the field? How much is real time action? How much is pre-determined play time? How much is actual playing time?
Hi David,
I’m a big NFL fan and die-hard Cleveland Browns fan. I absolutely LOVE watching the game on TV, but I absolutely BECAMEN DVR-ED after about 45-50 minutes of watching one-sided action. I couldnt get over how little time was actually shown. You can bet I was the last person watching the game on TV. Anyway, I watched the WSJ’s article that broke down the numbers and it was eye-opening. Very few people in the article knew how many commercials aired during a game. So the definition of “dead action” is frequently used. I’d just like to add that, contrary to what you may have read, I’m not nearly as apathetic about commercials as you are. And I’m not even nearly as apathetic about NFL offenses as you are. I can’t stand it when commercials interrupt a play so I automatically turn off my TV.
How much play time is in an NFL game? How much real time is there in an NFL game? And if you ask me, the amount of actual action in an NFL game is more action than you can shake a stick at.
In football, the amount of time a ball player spends on the ground, in between plays, is not nearly the same. In a typical NFL game, a player will typically be involved in between 30 and 40 plays. And in those plays, he may do anything from catching a pass, running a route, or dropping an interception. In high-intensity situations (like, say, a Super Bowl or NBA Finals game), the player(s) on the field may do nothing but bump into each other and huddle up after each play. (If you ask me, the amount of actual action in an NFL game is more action than you can shake a stick at.)
NFL games have been increasing in length, and the amount of action has been increasing as well. In the table below, I’ve counted the number of actual plays and the number of whistles since 1960. I found that the total amount of action has been roughly the same since 1960. I then subtracted the two-and-a-half hours from each play to arrive at the total amount of time in the game.
How much play time is in an NFL game? Very little. Think about it. You have two minutes of real action and then there’s about 5 seconds of commercial breaks. Do you really need 5 seconds of that in a football game? No. But you also have two minutes of actual action in a football game, so you really do get 2/3rds of a minute of both minutes of play and then some. So the amount of “action” in a football game is not nearly as important as the amount of “cutaways” and the time it takes to get to the sideline after touchdowns. And if you’re a big-time NFL fan, you probably already know the rule about icing: you get one minute of commercial breaks, which can be cut out if you like. Not only that, but the halftime show is pretty much just a bunch of commercials. Plus, there’s just no tension in that show: players stand around awkwardly, huddling up before a quick sprint to the huddle, then running back to the huddle again just a few seconds later. And the referee is just standing there.
And the halftime show is also pretty much just a bunch of commercials. Plus, there’s a lot of shuffling around the line of scrimmage, which is annoying for both fans and the officials.
How much play time is in an NFL game? Ask a US consumer advocate and they’ll tell you that “less than 1/2 hour”. The NFL has admitted this and has reduced the amount of time on the clock. They’re trying to reduce the amount of commercials. If you want to know how much live action there is in an NFL game, take a look at this:
And this:
If you want to know how much actual playing time there is in an MLS game, take a look at this:
You can do the maths for yourself. Just google “average amount of playing time” and you’ll get hundreds of articles with the answer. Just google “Average amount of playing time in Major League Soccer games” and you’ll get hundreds of articles with the same answer.
So this whole “dead action” thing is just a PR stunt by the NFL to placate their diehard fans. You know, like the guy in the ad who’s like “Hey, look what the NFL is doing for live action!” Or the ad guy standing in line at the store who says “Hey, look at how many products are on display!” I mean, really, the point of the ad was just to generate more money. So yeah, pretty much the exact same logic applies.
