After hearing of the Phillies' World Series win, I thought for a moment that maybe I should retire from fandom, as I'd reached the top. The Phillies can't do better than winning the Series. Now that it's football season, and the Eagles are teasingly good but fatally flawed, I may wish to quit for different reasons entirely.
I came to realize why I can't really stand to watch a football game from start to finish anymore. Major college and NFL games cover 60 minutes of playing time, but last for an actual period of three to four hours. In that time, an average NFL game features 122 plays, and 135 in college due to different time-keeping. I am assuming that the average play lasts 4-5 seconds. Some very long plays take longer, many boring incomplete passes take less. If we assume a game of 120 5-second plays, then the ball is in play for 600 seconds, or ten minutes. That's right, sit at your TV for 360-480 minutes to catch 10 minutes or so of action.
The reason that football works is that there is time to build up anticipation and suspense between each play, which makes it fundamentally different to watch than basketball or soccer. That is why it's somewhat difficult for a fan used to soccer-watching to care for football and vice-versa. I can say that I've enjoyed viewing many football games over the years, but the majority really were snoozers with very little excitement. The solution? Speed up games. Clock stoppages for incomplete passes waste so much time! I am just as sick of watching teams throw 25 incompletions as I am of basketball teams clanking careless jumpers all night. Power running can not only help your team dominate, but it can give your fans 30 to 60 extra minutes each week to spend doing something meaningful, or at least less irritating.
Sadly, I'm a real homer when it comes to game viewing. I gotta care about one team or the game doesn't matter to me. And I want to see my team win and win handily. I am not interested in "epic" back-and-forth struggles except when they involve two teams I don't care about, becuase that's the only type of game between disinterested teams that I can get into. Maybe I am too curmudgeonly to enjoy football anymore.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Very interesting post about the time played vs watched. I never thought about it that way. However it's just not going to change. All that time where no play happens is used for advertising, and sadly that's all that matters.
Post a Comment