Written by Chad Langager at Sporting Charts
Back in 2010, the Wall Street Journal came out with a now-famous article on the amount of time the ball is actually in play during an average NFL game.
“… the average amount of time the ball is in play on the field during an NFL game is about 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.”
Therefore, in a given NFL season, there is a total of 2,816 minutes of play during the regular season (assuming no OT games) out of a possible 15,360 minutes.
So what would the NFL look like if the clock only counted down when the ball was in play – in other words, if the ball is in play for the full 60 minutes or a “ball in play” clock.
To be clear, this article isn’t a suggestion that the game needs to change to this type of format. It doesn’t. More of a Twilight Zone look at what if…
A TON MORE SCORING: And in Super Bowl 49 the New England Patriots beat the Seattle Seahawks 153-131 in a nail-biter…
The average NFL game sees around 44.74 total points scored or approximately 4.07 points per “ball in play” minute.
If the game were to expand to 60 full minutes of “ball in play” we could see this average jump up to 244 average total points scored per game. Imagine, the fantasy football points you’d put up in your league.
In 1990, the San Francisco 49ers beat the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XXIV 55-10, which is the largest Super Bowl victory to date. If this game were to be played in this fictional full 60 minute of “ball in play” world, this blowout would have been more like: 300-55.
Of course, the strategy of the game would change significantly as there would be a lot more time to mount comebacks and ensure wins. Maybe the NFL would need to extend the size of the field so that teams would have to cover a much greater distance with all that extra-time so scores don’t get too out of hand… instead of 100 yard fields: 600 YARD FIELDS!
To continue reading this article, click here
