Football games have 12 minutes of action

[snopes]

Comment: I heard this just before this year's superbowl and wanted to know that if
it was true. Even though a football game is made up of 4 quarters 15
minutes in duration, along with a 15 minute half, the actual time the
players spend playing is not one hour, or the 2 and a half hours it
typacally takes to play a game, but 12 minutes. Since the clock runs even
when they are not playing, it doesn't give an adequate representation of
time spent playing. Counting from the snap of the football to when the
play is whisteled dead, all told total time spent playing, in an average
game is 12 minutes.

[STF]

I'd be interested to know this. I'm wondering how long an average play is from snap to whistle. It can't be terribly long I wouldn't think. Then the question is how many plays are run in an average game.

[Insensible Crier]

Well the clock doesn't always run. It stops on an time out, 2 minute warning, incomplete pass, player runs out of bounds, a penalty, coach's challenge, football spike and a bunch of others I can't think of. I'm just sick of all of the damn commercial breaks. They make the game almost unwatchable for me.

[ARubberChickenWithAPulley]

Sleeper bowl

The average NFL game contains about 120 actual plays, which take an average of six seconds each. That's 720 seconds of play, or 12 minutes.

120 plays sounds about right. Not sure about the 6 seconds, but it doesn't sound too far off.

I think the problem is that this isn't entirely relevant outside the context of the game. I'd guess the 6 seconds is the average time from snap to whistle blow. However, football is very much about strategy prior to each play, and there are a lot of things that go on before the snap to "set" up the play (motion, audibles, reading the defense, disguising coverage, etc. et.) that don't qualify as "action" but are a pretty integral part of the game.

As such, I'd guess the stat is about right, in that there is about 12 minutes of "action" on average.

[STF]

I wouldn't be surprised at all if it was less than 10 seconds from snap to whistle at all. I just looked at NFL.com a little bit and 120 plays or so does sound about right for a pro game.

If I had a game saved on my DVR I'd time it to see if six seconds was reasonable or not.

[BamaRainbow]

Well, I have to question the methodology (and I'm not even a football fan). Not all plays are the same. A running play CAN add any number of seconds to the length of time (and each time a touchdown's been made, the team that made the TD has to kick the ball back to the other team and, in most cases, the receiver will run the ball as far as he can).
But, typically, the players ARE playing even when they're "just" on the line of scrimmage waiting for the snap (anyone who watches even a few games would note that some players actually do move before the ball is snapped, and as long as they don't cross the line--and probably some other technical minutia which I don't know and don't care about--it's legal maneuvering).
Now, compared to something like rugby or soccer, it does seem like football players may not seem to be IN MOTION all that much but they ARE playing.

[A Turtle Named Mack]

Of course, if it's the Atlanta Falcons playing the Seattle Seahawks, it's about 48 seconds of action.

[chillas]

Having been curious about this myself, I've timed them four or five times, and I've always gotten between 10 and fifteen minutes, so I'd say that 12 sounds pretty reasonable.

[DemonWolf]

Originally Posted by BamaRainbow

Now, compared to something like rugby or soccer, it does seem like football players may not seem to be IN MOTION all that much but they ARE playing.

No one is saying that they aren't playing, they are measuring the amount of "action" or the amount of time that is spent trying to score. When the players are in huddle of lining up, they are not moving the ball, but they are preparing to move the ball.

[Insensible Crier]

I think there is a point that it's not just about something actually happening but the setup and anticipation as well as the context of the game. Suppose there's a play were a runner runs the ball up the middle for 2 yards so you just waited 30 seconds for two seconds of action. But what was the context? Was it first and 10 on their own 20? Then so what? But what if it was 4th and goal on the one yard line with two seconds to go and the touchdown puts that team into the playoffs? People would be going nuts and jumping and cheering like crazy. So you can't reduce a sport into a bunch of actions and the one with the most action is better. It's like reducing a book into just a bunch of words. If that's all you're looking for then go read Oxford's Unabridged Dictionary.

I've seen post-game shows where they go over all plays in a game, and those shows last no more than 30 minutes (and that includes lots of comments from the coaches). So yea, 12 minutes sounds about right.

[FullMetal]

I have to agree with everyone here, that context is key, I play full contact football (CFL rules) recreationally. and there is a lot more that goes on than just the action. what play to call, how best to exploit their defence, etc.

football has been described as a ballet of chess and war. it has the strategy of chess, every play you make has to be carefully planned. and you rely on the talent of your players to make the play succeed.

I personally prefer CFL rules football to NFL however, due mainly to the speed at which the game is played. some NFL games are played quickly, but whenever Peyton manning takes the field I'm bored by his constant audibles, changing the play at the line. I think it's stupid, and only serves to piss off the defense, I played D-Line against a team like that, if it didn't make me want to hit the qb more than if he was just a standard cadence qb. It's not comfortable in a 3 point stance, and I just want the play to commence.

[STF]

I should say that I'm with the rest of you who puts more stock in the story or context of the game. I don't care how much action there is from snap to whistle in a game. All I know is that I love watching it.

That being said I found this interesting because I had never thought about that particular point.

[Sweeney_Todd]

many years ago, a friend edited a video of a NFL game for just playing from the snap to the whistle blowing. I rememebr watching it and not even finishing a can of beer. 12 minutes sounds about right. I wonder about baseball.

[Johnny Slick]

12 minutes sounds about right. As for baseball, the local Mariners affiliate did this "rewind" thing for a couple years where they deleted everything that happened between pitches. IIRC the shows tended to be about an hour long (which is 47 minutes after commercials; a bit less than that for the actual game since they'd do pre and post-game analysis). While I would like to see baseball find a way to speed up games, I can also see why this never caught on: there's too much going on, one thing right after the other.

[keokuk]

Originally Posted by Johnny Slick

12 minutes sounds about right. As for baseball, the local Mariners affiliate did this "rewind" thing for a couple years where they deleted everything that happened between pitches. IIRC the shows tended to be about an hour long (which is 47 minutes after commercials; a bit less than that for the actual game since they'd do pre and post-game analysis). While I would like to see baseball find a way to speed up games, I can also see why this never caught on: there's too much going on, one thing right after the other.

I've seen baseball games edited this way before also. I found it somewhat unwatchable because it sometimes became difficult to really contemplate what was going on. I've always found the time between pitches to be ideal to take in the situation, consider all the possibilities, and speculate on what might happen next. Without that opportunity, watching a game just isn't the same.

[Tarquin Farquart]

I wonder how other sports would compare to this.

[MooseMacD]

Originally Posted by Tarquin Farquart

I wonder how other sports would compare to this.

Well, my guesses from years of being a couch potato in Canada/US...

Ice Hockey: 60 minutes of game time, 60 minutes of activity as the clock doesn't run between whistles

Basketball: 60 minutes of game time (in the NBA, 48 in college), almost all of it active. After a made basket the clock usually keep running but play resume within a few seconds (once the ball is retreived).

Baseball: I'd guess it averages 3 hours to 3:15 or so in running time. In terms of action...well between each 1/2 inning there'd be about 3 minutes of commercials. This would be about 54 minutes of ad time leaving a little more than 2 hours of "action". However, there is so much down time between pitches, pitching changes, pick-off throws, umpires discretion, etc., there is probably less than an hour of real action (just a guess).

Not sure why I included baseball since it's not a timed game, but I do watch a lot of it. It would be hard judge other non-timed sports like golf, NASCAR (or other racing), bowling, etc.

I don't watch enough soccer to guess - anyone have a thought?

[stalker]

Originally Posted by MooseMacD

I don't watch enough soccer to guess - anyone have a thought?

I've not seen the stat for a while, but sometimes in live Premier League games they show how long the ball has been in play. Generally, it's ~25 mins per half, so ~50 mins for a game.
As with most of the other sports though, the player are involved for much longer as they're jostling for space before throw-ins, corners, free-kicks, etc.

[Ali Infree]

I enjoy George Will,the pundit, only when he writes about baseball. It is as close to common ground as I will ever get with him. In Ken Burns' film Baseball, he is one of the talking heads. During the course of the movie, he notes that football combines episodic violence with committee meetings, which he thought was the worst of American life. As one who has spent more time in meetings than I can remember, I have to say, I miss the violence.

So how much action in an average 30 minute network TV news show?

Ali "if it all happened at once, when would we go to the bathroom? " Infree