thebigp

By Ben Rolfe—pro football network
How long is a football game, how much time is their live action on the field, and how many commercials are fit into a football broadcast?
September 12, 2021
While the return of football season is a joy for many, it can leave others asking, “how long is a football game?” in exasperation of missing their favorite show while football is on the television. The game of football itself is officially a 60-minute event, with four 15-minute quarters. Let’s look at just how long a football game is, how long halftime takes, how much time the ball is actually in play, and how many commercials are fit into a broadcast.
How long is a football game?-While reports on this vary depending on the sample size, the average NFL game reportedly takes 3 hours and 12 minutes to complete. In contrast, the average time for a college football game is 3 hours and 24 minutes.
How long, on average, is halftime of a football game?-The length of halftime also varies between the professional and college game. In the NFL, the average halftime lasts 12 minutes, while that extends out to 20 minutes in college football. That extra time at the half accounts for a significant portion of why a college game lasts 12 minutes longer than an NFL game. The exception for halftime is the Super Bowl, where the halftime is significantly longer at around 20-30 minutes.
How much live action is there throughout an NFL game?
The numbers on how much live action takes place during an NFL game varies, but it is generally between 15 and 20 minutes, with 18 viewed as the average. Those 18 minutes are reasonably loaded with action, seeing well over 100 plays in total. This average has increased, with the Wall Street Journal reporting an average time of just 11 minutes in 2010. The reason why a game that officially lasts 60 minutes has less than 20 minutes of action is due to the NFL’s rules. The clock continuously runs in several situations while it stops for just a handful. For example, the clock continues after a running play unless the back goes out of bounds during certain parts of the game. It is the same for a completed passing play, with an incompletion being one of the few events that stop the clock.
Of the major sports, football has the least active time. Baseball is the closest at just over 20 minutes. Meanwhile, the NBA, NHL, and English Premier League all have over 45 minutes of average game time. However, it is somewhat unfair to judge the NFL harshly on this. Much of what happens before the snap is as important as what happens after the snap. The chess match of an NFL game is played between the offense and the defense before the ball reaches the quarterback’s hands. This is equivalent to the time spent setting up a play in the NBA, NHL, or soccer leagues.
How many commercials are there?
On average, around 25% of the NFL broadcast is commercials. In three hours, that adds up to a lot of commercials in a 50-ish-minute time span. There are around 15-25 commercials per quarter, adding up to as many as 100+ commercials in total during a football game!
Ben is the Director of Fantasy and Co-Director of Informational content at Pro Football Network. He is also a member of the Fantasy Sports Writers Association (FSWA). You can read all of Ben’s work here and follow him on Twitter: @BenRolfePFN.
How Much Time Is Played During a Football Game?
By: Steve Silverman---sports rec
Football has earned a spot as the dominant sport on the American sporting scene, as Super Bowls broadcasts routinely crack 100 million viewers in the U.S. alone. The average football game is scheduled to last, in terms of broadcast time, three hours. The actual play in the game, though, is dramatically less than that.
Football is 60 minutes, Officially
Football fans know a regulation league game lasts 60 minutes. A football game is divided into four 15-minute quarters.
• At the end of the first and third quarters, there is a three-minute break.
• A 15-minute break follows the first half.
If a game is tied at the end of regulation, the teams will play one sudden-death period of 15 minutes. The team that scores first wins the game, although overtime rules have changed recently due to controversial playoff games. Overtime games no longer end on a first possession touchdown. Instead, the other team will have a chance to match the touchdown and send the overtime period into sudden death. If neither team scores in the extra period, the game ends as a tie. Postseason games cannot end in ties. If neither team scores in the first overtime period, the game continues until the game ends as a result of a touchdown, field goal or safety.
… But Football 11 Minutes of Action
The average play in a football game can last anywhere between four and 12 seconds.
1. A football play starts when the center snaps the ball to the quarterback or another player in the backfield.
2. The football play ends when a player is tackled, runs out of bounds or a pass falls incomplete.
When the total of all these plays are added up in a regulation professional football game, the total length of the time played is approximately 11 minutes, according to a report in "The Wall Street Journal."
This total has remained consistent over the many decades pro football has been played. An Indiana University professor recorded 13 minutes and 16 seconds worth of action in a 1912 game, and that the Pro Football Researchers Association recorded an average of 13 minutes and 30 seconds worth of action from games that the organization had studied.
When the Clock Stops
One reason for the drop-off in the amount of time actually played is the rules of the game. In football, a player who is tackled within the field after running with the ball or making a catch ends the play. The clock continues to move.
The team must put the ball back into play within 35 seconds after the play clock is started.
As time rolls after tackles are made:
• players are running back to the huddle,
• getting the play call
• and then setting up for the next play.
The clock stops on an incomplete pass or when a runner goes out of bounds, but as soon as the referee puts the ball back on the line of scrimmage and rules that it has been readied for play, the clock begins to count down again.
Some Last Four Hours
While the actual playing time has remained relatively the same over the years, the actual time from the start of the game to the finish has increased dramatically:
• The use of timeouts by each team
• injury time
• replay time
• and commercial time.
The NFL requires sixteen commercial breaks per game. There are eight commercial breaks per half. Each break lasts either one or two minutes.
The average television broadcast will show as many as 100 replays during an individual broadcast.
Football broadcasts can last almost four hours when a game goes into overtime or for special broadcasts, including the Super Bowl.