I am having a running disagreement with an other person, can someone fill me in. The other person keeps insisting the a CFL game is approximately 13 min long from the snap of the ball to when the play is whistled dead. The rest of the time is apparently time to set up the play and count down to when the ball is snapped. Only from the snap of the bill to the whistle is counted. HELP! Is this really only 13 min???
Typical CFL game has about 160 plays. Say on average about 6 seconds from snap to whistle and you get 16 minutes. If it's 5 seconds a play it's just over 13 minutes.
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What about the last 3 min of stop time ? There has to be more actual playing time in the complete game than that.
That sounds about right to me.
I don't know if anyone has timed CFL games, but NFL games have been timed to be about 11 minutes of actual action.
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That would make sense that the NFL would be lower because I believe on average they have noticably fewer plays in a game.
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HOW LONG IS THE ACTUAL PLAYING TIME IN NFL GAMES?
The NFL’s popularity is all the more remarkable when you examine the fares it has to offer each week on television. An average professional football game lasts 3 hours and 12 minutes, but if you count the time when the ball was actually played, the action lasted only 11 minutes.
Part of the difference concerns the basic rules of American football. Unlike hockey or basketball, the 60-minute clock in football can run even when the ball is not in play. That means a lot of game time is spent standing around or gathering before each playthrough begins.
A few years ago by the Wall Street Journal, 11 minutes of action was famously calculated. Its analysis shows that the average NFL broadcast spends more time on replays (17 minutes) than it does live.
Much of the time (75 minutes) is spent watching the players, coaches and referees essentially loiter on the pitch. The average game in the NFL lasts only four seconds.
Of course, watching football on TV is hardly just the game. There are also lots of ads to show people. The average NFL game consisting of 20 commercial breaks contains more than 100 ads. The Journal’s analysis shows that advertising takes up about an hour, or a third, of gameplay.
The stop-and-go nature of football makes it especially important for advertising, unlike football, which forces broadcasters to creatively insert ads during the 45-minute run of the game. Broadcasts of NFL games in Europe, incidentally, include much less advertising.
It’s Officially 60 Minutes
Football fans know a regulation league game lasts 60 minutes. The 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. 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 11 Minutes of Action
The average play in a football game can last anywhere between four and 12 seconds. A play starts when the center snaps the ball to the quarterback or another player in the backfield. The 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 2010 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.
I’ve heard this before, so I knew it is “somewhere out there”
Cue the music
Somewhere out there
If love can see us through
Then we’ll be together
Somewhere out there
Out where dreams come true
And even though I know how very far apart we are
It helps to think we might be wishing on the same bright star
And when the night wind starts to sing a lonesome lullaby
It helps to think we’re sleeping, underneath the same big sky.
And just like our kicker after going 2/12 Ta-Da