This is pretty hard to believe, but I'm going over this in my head as I type. For this to be accurate, I guess each play is only a few seconds long and once the play is over, the clock the researchers are timing this with stops too. So, at 5 seconds per play, at 10 play, 80 yard drive would only take 50 seconds of actual game time. I've never thought of it like that before. Interesting.. http://online.wsj.com/article_email...02852055561406-lMyQjAxMTAwMDEwNTExNDUyWj.html
BS. You can watch a game with only actual game action on Directv. NFL Short Cuts. It's condensed into 30 minutes with no more than about 5 to 6 minutes max of commercials, probably less. I'll check next time I watch but it's over 20 minutes of actual game action.
The Wall Street Journal is pretty reputable, but I believe the sample size of games researched was only 4, so who knows. As mentioned before, it's pretty tough to believe.
I can believe it. More time runs off the clock after a running play than during it. And with about 130-150 plays on both sides each requiring time to set up on the line, often times huddling up it adds up. CFB games are around 2 hours 20 minutes without the commercials and half time. The average play is about 5 seconds (Running plays more likely less than 5 seconds and passing plays more likely more than 5 seconds). I would say and with 130 plays that is 650 seconds of plays...or about 11 minutes of action time.
I'll make a note to see how minutes of commercials and announcement of penalties are in the 30 minute NFL Rewind when I re-watch the Saints game this week. I doubt it's 19 minutes of a 10 minute program. I know it's not anywhere near 19 minutes though.
The article said that's only the time between the ball being snapped and the play being blown dead. So, the pre-snap, formations, audibles, etc. are all omitted from the times they calculated. What I would like to see is actual game time (not just snap to whistle) versus commercial time. That would piss a lot of people off.
Based on my observations, I'd bet it's about 50/50. As an example, I couldn't watch the Saints game live yesterday so I DVR'd it. I sat down about 7 and was done with the game around 8:30. I fast forwarded through commercials, backed up to see a few plays again, let it run through halftime and took a couple of pee breaks. In other words, I wasn't rushing to get through the game. I've watched some games (both college and pro) from breaking offensive huddle to whistle and fast forwarding everything else (except penalties) in right at an hour.
130 plays on average. A running play lasts probably 4 seconds on average. A pass play maybe 6 seconds. So let's go with 5 seconds overall. 650 seconds. That's approximately 11 minutes.
