Does it seem like there's not much going on during the typical NFL game broadcast? That's because out of an average of 174 minutes, the ball is in play only 11 minutes:
In other words, if you tally up everything that happens between the time the ball is snapped and the play is whistled dead by the officials, there's barely enough time to prepare a hard-boiled egg. In fact, the average telecast devotes 56% more time to showing replays.
So what do the networks do with the other 174 minutes in a typical broadcast? Not surprisingly, commercials take up about an hour. As many as 75 minutes, or about 60% of the total air time, excluding commercials, is spent on shots of players huddling, standing at the line of scrimmage or just generally milling about between snaps. In the four broadcasts The Journal studied, injured players got six more seconds of camera time than celebrating players. While the network announcers showed up on screen for just 30 seconds, shots of the head coaches and referees took up about 7% of the average show.
So that's 2680 minutes of football in their whole life, or the equivalent of 45 hours in their entire life, less than two days.
Hockey rules ;p
Grab a stopwatch and check: each 'action' spurt last LESS THAN 6 SECONDS (an 8-seconds rodeo last longer)! And the TV Show is actually done at the editing room: replays, close-ups, ads, CG... not on the field.
Rugby and the international Football (Americans call 'soccer') are action-packed sports, with almost non-stop playing. It figures...
And most times the game comes down to one huge play, the can win or lose a game.
Take your average Premiership game. If there are 3 minuts of action it is a great game. Most of the time is spend playing the ball around 50 meters from the opponts goal, with no chance of scoring. A good game will have 5-8 goalscoring chances.
Every play has a chance of scoring in the NFL.
Make no mistake i love Football, and i love Football/Soccer.
I love seeing arsenal playing city, i was really a great game. I love seeing Arsenal playing blackburn, but most likly it is a terrible game, not a joy to watch. Would i ever watch Wigan vs. West Ham, no way.
So the thing is there a maybe a good premiership game every 2-3 weekends.
Every week there are 3-4 very good NFL games. Because every rule in NFL is there to entertain the fans.
In Soccer it seems every rule is there to make it difficult to soccer.
I could talk about this for hours, well days even. But that is only because i love Soccer so most, that i would wish they would look a the sport today, and see every thing they a doing wrong. Money is killing the sport.
Take the NFL, the best team from last year, has the smallest wage budget next year. The want to give every team a chance to win. Not just the team with the best Oil Driller...
You need to learn to watch Football, but when you do, you will love it. But you need to learn the basic rules:-)
This it written with a smile, and a hope that you will learn the great sport, that is American Football :-)