4 ms·

That sounds like American football too. 3.25 hours of clock time, 60 minutes of a game, and 11 minutes of actual action (or closer to 96% of the time standing

That sounds like American football too. 3.25 hours of clock time, 60 minutes of a game, and 11 minutes of actual action (or closer to 96% of the time standing around.) http://www.sportsonearth.com/article/64441086/nfl-statistical-analysis-average-nfl-game http://www.sportsonearth.com/article/64441086/nfl-statistica... Good quote: It's curious that few complain about NFL game lengths, considering they take 13 minutes longer, more time than the 11 total minutes of actual game play during an NFL game. In other words, you could fit all the action of an average NFL game into the spare time after an average baseball game ends.

budde 11y ago
Setting aside personal preference and the vast differences in play between the two sports, you also need to consider the number of games played in a season. An NFL team plays 16 games in the regular season. An MLB team plays 162. While a baseball game and a football game may be similar in duration and proportion of action to dead time, a football game carries much more weight and I think this contributes to the relative popularity of the sport over baseball.
pcl 11y ago
I started to enjoy watching football a lot more once a friend explained that it's really more like chess than soccer. Really, the game is between two coaches, who have an array of players, practiced plays and assistant coaches at hand. Viewed that way, the 60-minute game time is comprised of a series of moves, with the coaches responding to each other and the time remaining on the clock. There's still a bunch of time lost to unnecessary commercial breaks and the halftime rigmarole, though.
w1ntermute 11y ago
That's if you're watching professional sports on TV. The article is about children playing the sport themselves, so I was referring to playing baseball vs. football or basketball, not watching endless beer/car/fantasy sports commercials interspersed with occasional gameplay.

budde 11y ago

Setting aside personal preference and the vast differences in play between the two sports, you also need to consider the number of games played in a season. An NFL team plays 16 games in the regular season. An MLB team plays 162. While a baseball game and a football game may be similar in duration and proportion of action to dead time, a football game carries much more weight and I think this contributes to the relative popularity of the sport over baseball.

pcl 11y ago

I started to enjoy watching football a lot more once a friend explained that it's really more like chess than soccer. Really, the game is between two coaches, who have an array of players, practiced plays and assistant coaches at hand. Viewed that way, the 60-minute game time is comprised of a series of moves, with the coaches responding to each other and the time remaining on the clock. There's still a bunch of time lost to unnecessary commercial breaks and the halftime rigmarole, though.

w1ntermute 11y ago

That's if you're watching professional sports on TV. The article is about children playing the sport themselves, so I was referring to playing baseball vs. football or basketball, not watching endless beer/car/fantasy sports commercials interspersed with occasional gameplay.