Is American Football boring?

[Symmetry]

Now, I've personally never found it all that interesting, but I was recently fascinated by a study that an average televised game features only about 11 minutes of actual playing time over the course of three hours. The ads take up more time.

What's the appeal? Surely rugby has the same thrills without the non-stop commercial breaks begging fans and players to stop beating up women and drink more poor quality beer.

[muy_thaiguy]

It's a game of strategy, physicality, speed, power, and athleticism.

Plus, at the collegiate level, fans get passionate for the schools they went to and supported when they defeat a long time rival.

[waauw]

Commercial breaks are exactly the reason I refuse to ever watch american football again.

[TA1LGUNN3R]

Football is about as exciting as English food is flavorful.

-TG

[riskllama]

as soon as i saw the title to this thread, symmetry.

[tzor]

As an American I have to say that ... er ... Football in the United States (Can't really comment on Canada and their extra 20 yards) is terribly boring. Even when I like watching the game. A lot of oversized and overweight players really made a lot of the options more ... well boring. And a lot of the Quarterbacks suck these days, especially on the teams I love to follow.

[saxitoxin]

Now, I've personally never found it all that interesting, but I was recently fascinated by a study that an average televised game features only about 11 minutes of actual playing time over the course of three hours. The ads take up more time.

What's the appeal? Surely rugby has the same thrills without the non-stop commercial breaks begging fans and players to stop beating up women and drink more poor quality beer.

Commercial breaks don't matter; the game isn't organized around commercial breaks. There just happens to a be a lot of times when there is nothing happening and they use that time to insert commercials.

American football is about more than the game, it's about the pageantry and spectacle; bands, cheerleaders, dancers, twirlers, fireworks, blah blah. I was at an English rugby match once and there was no pageantry. At halftime they had a couple drunk retards stumble onto the pitch and try to kick a ball through the uprights. Then the game restarted - the stupid game with no rules and no strategy, just a bunch of guys who only use steroids in their thighs and nowhere else running around.

[Quirk]

[mrswdk]

Commercial breaks don't matter; the game isn't organized around commercial breaks. There just happens to a be a lot of times when there is nothing happening and they use that time to insert commercials.

American football is about more than the game, it's about the pageantry and spectacle; bands, cheerleaders, dancers, twirlers, fireworks, blah blah. I was at an English rugby match once and there was no pageantry. At halftime they had a couple drunk retards stumble onto the pitch and try to kick a ball through the uprights. Then the game restarted - the stupid game with no rules and no strategy, just a bunch of guys who only use steroids in their thighs and nowhere else running around.

I too get frustrated when I go to sports stadiums and all anyone there wants to do is watch people play sports.

[notyou2]

It's only boring if you don't understand the game. Canadian football is also very exciting but needs more teams.

[tzor]

Commercial breaks don't matter; the game isn't organized around commercial breaks. There just happens to a be a lot of times when there is nothing happening and they use that time to insert commercials.

No, that's not true. American Football was the first sport to surrender completely to commercial breaks (the second, ironically is the National Hockey League, but they managed to cover that up in recent years by having people with shovels "dry scrape" the ice while the commercial breaks happen). There is a referee whose only job is to indicate that commercials are being run. Game play cannot resume unless he gives his approval. Originally this was signaled through his cap.

"Time" is a relative dimension in American Football and there is really very little time when NOTHING is going on. The swapping of squads between offense and defense might be the biggest time waster. A lot of "action" actually takes place off of the clock including extra points. One can question weather huddles counts as actions or not. Some teams use a quick huddle so that the defense isn't prepared for any possibility. Sometimes the huddle is being made while the clock is ticking, sometimes not.

Things have gotten crappy tech of late in the game. The quarterback has communication with the sidelines in his helmet until a certain cut off time. He has the entire play roster on his sleeve. Never the less, most quarterbacks will call "audibles" after the huddle when he sees what the defense is going to do (and almost shits his pants). There is a lot of deception in the game (none of it works) and a lot of technical rules that result in replay of the downs.

[muy_thaiguy]

As an American I have to say that ... er ... Football in the United States (Can't really comment on Canada and their extra 20 yards) is terribly boring. Even when I like watching the game. A lot of oversized and overweight players really made a lot of the options more ... well boring. And a lot of the Quarterbacks suck these days, especially on the teams I love to follow.

Speak for yourself.

[saxitoxin]

Commercial breaks don't matter; the game isn't organized around commercial breaks. There just happens to a be a lot of times when there is nothing happening and they use that time to insert commercials.

No, that's not true. American Football was the first sport to surrender completely to commercial breaks (the second, ironically is the National Hockey League, but they managed to cover that up in recent years by having people with shovels "dry scrape" the ice while the commercial breaks happen). There is a referee whose only job is to indicate that commercials are being run. Game play cannot resume unless he gives his approval. Originally this was signaled through his cap.

Yes, it is true. In a non-televised game, after a field goal, the ball isn't immediately picked-up off the ground and put back into action within two seconds. And, there are up to 14 timeouts and quarter breaks in a game whether there's a television camera on or not. The fact that all this might be extended for an extra minute in a televised game doesn't mean American football otherwise consists of non-stop movement of the ball.

"Time" is a relative dimension in American Football and there is really very little time when NOTHING is going on.

OK I guess you're correct. At American football games there usually aren't times when there is a complete break-down in the fluctuation of the quantum vacuum and simultaneous implosion of all matter particles. (Though IIRC it did happen at last year's Eagles/Panthers game.)

[saxitoxin]

Commercial breaks don't matter; the game isn't organized around commercial breaks. There just happens to a be a lot of times when there is nothing happening and they use that time to insert commercials.

American football is about more than the game, it's about the pageantry and spectacle; bands, cheerleaders, dancers, twirlers, fireworks, blah blah. I was at an English rugby match once and there was no pageantry. At halftime they had a couple drunk retards stumble onto the pitch and try to kick a ball through the uprights. Then the game restarted - the stupid game with no rules and no strategy, just a bunch of guys who only use steroids in their thighs and nowhere else running around.

I too get frustrated when I go to sports stadiums and all anyone there wants to do is watch people play sports.

Get out of here. We all know that by "sports stadiums" you mean "runway shows during Milan fashion week."

[mrswdk]

Why would I go to Milan when I live in LONDON.

Drops.

The.

Mic.

[tzor]

Yes, it is true.

He said, she said ... Wikipedia says ...

American football (NFL): The National Football League requires twenty commercial breaks per game, with ten in each half. (Exceptions to this are overtime periods, which have none.) These breaks run either a minute, or two minutes in length. Of the ten commercial breaks per half, two are mandatory: at the end of the first or third quarter, and at the two-minute warning for the end of the half. The remaining eight breaks are optional. The timeouts can be applied after field goal tries, conversion attempts for both one and two points following touchdowns, changes in possession either by punts or turnovers, and kickoffs (except for the ones that start each half, or are within the last five minutes). The breaks are also called during stoppages due to injury, instant replay challenges, when either of the participating teams uses one of its set of timeouts, and if the network needs to catch up on its commercial advertisement schedule. The arrangement for college football contests is the same, except for the absence of the two-minute warning.

[saxitoxin]

Yes, it is true.

He said, she said ... Wikipedia says ...

American football (NFL): The National Football League requires twenty commercial breaks per game, with ten in each half. (Exceptions to this are overtime periods, which have none.) These breaks run either a minute, or two minutes in length. Of the ten commercial breaks per half, two are mandatory: at the end of the first or third quarter, and at the two-minute warning for the end of the half. The remaining eight breaks are optional. The timeouts can be applied after field goal tries, conversion attempts for both one and two points following touchdowns, changes in possession either by punts or turnovers, and kickoffs (except for the ones that start each half, or are within the last five minutes). The breaks are also called during stoppages due to injury, instant replay challenges, when either of the participating teams uses one of its set of timeouts, and if the network needs to catch up on its commercial advertisement schedule. The arrangement for college football contests is the same, except for the absence of the two-minute warning.

fixed

IOW let's say, in a game, teams use three of their six time-outs in a half, there's one quarter break, there are three scores, there's an injury, and a call challenge. That means there would have been exactly one TV Timeout. In other words, in a half that may last 90 minutes (real time), there would be 2-minutes where TV advertising is artificially inserted (inserted at times when there would have been no natural stop in game play) or 2.2% of the total (real time) length of the half.

Therefore, like I said, the game isn't organized around commercial breaks. There just happens to a be a lot of times when there is nothing happening and they use that time to insert commercials.

[saxitoxin]

There just happens to a be a lot of times when there is nothing happening and they use that time to insert commercials.

to emphasize this point -

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.

In other words, if you tally up everything that happens between the time the ball is snapped and the play is whistled dead by the officials, there's barely enough time to prepare a hard-boiled egg. In fact, the average telecast devotes 56% more time to showing replays.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB100014240 ... 2055561406

[saxitoxin]

Why would I go to Milan when I live in LONDON.

there's already a brexit thread, dick skin

[mrswdk]

saxi's currently on a retainer for either the Miami Dolphins or NBC.

[tzor]

IOW let's say, in a game, teams use three of their six time-outs in a half,

Well let's say it. That's 4.5 minutes wasted. Why? Because under the regulation, without the commercial factor, a timeout is 30 seconds.

SOURCE

Article 1 The Referee shall suspend play while the ball is dead and declare a charged team timeout upon the request for a timeout by the head coach or any player to any official.

Item 1: Three Timeouts Allowed A team is allowed three charged team timeouts during each half.

Item 2: Length of Timeouts. Charged team timeouts shall be two minutes in length, unless the timeout is not used by television for a commercial break. Timeouts shall be 30 seconds in length when the designated number of television commercials have been exhausted in a quarter, if it is a second charged team timeout in the same dead-ball period, or when the Referee so indicates.

If there were no commercials all time outs would be 30 seconds, not two minutes.

Check and Mate ... Q.E.D.

[mandalorian2298]

It is the best of all the sports. It combines the uncompromising agression of gladiator battles, the athleticism of soccer, the tactics of chess and, perhaps most importantly, it features salary cap, franchising and draft, so that victory cannot be bought, only earned.

[WingCmdr Ginkapo]

Saxi, you have described why you like military tattoos. Now what about American football?

[DoomYoshi]

f*ck off, saxitoxin. Next time you go to a game and you wonder why the players are just milling about the field and nothing is going on; over and over and over again you will quickly realize how many commercial breaks are totally unwarranted. I can read and practice the entire Kama Sutra in the amount of wasted time on Sundays.

[notyou2]

f*ck off, saxitoxin. Next time you go to a game and you wonder why the players are just milling about the field and nothing is going on; over and over and over again you will quickly realize how many commercial breaks are totally unwarranted. I can read and practice the entire Kama Sutra in the amount of wasted time on Sundays.

Don't fret little buddy, your stamina and staying power will improve with age.