How Long Are NFL Football Games?
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The average NFL football game is about three hours long, but if you factor in timeouts, commercials, and halftime, the game can run close to four hours.
Length of an NFL Game
The average NFL game lasts about three hours, but if you add in timeouts, halftime, and commercials, the broadcast of a game can last closer to four hours. Some games do go longer, however. NFL games are only 60 minutes long, but there are four quarters in an NFL game, each lasting 15 minutes.
Length of an NFL Game by Quarter
NFL games are divided into four quarters, each of which is 15 minutes long. There is a 12-minute break between the first and second quarters, and a two-minute break between the other quarters. NFL games also have a halftime break of about 20 minutes.
Length of an NFL Game by Half
The average length of an NFL game increased by about five minutes in 2019, according to data from the Wall Street Journal. That’s the biggest jump in time since the paper began tracking game lengths in 2010.
In 2019, the average NFL game lasted 3 hours and 7 minutes, up from 3 hours and 2 minutes in 2018. The increase was driven by a rise in halftime lengths and the time it takes to review plays under the league’s new rule allowing pass interference to be reviewable.
The average length of an NFL game by half is below:
1st Half – 1 hour and 33 minutes
2nd Half – 1 hour and 34 minutes
Length of an NFL Game by Possession
The average length of an NFL game has been steadily increasing over the years. In 2008, the average NFL game was 3 hours and 11 minutes long. In 2012, the average NFL game was 3 hours and 24 minutes long. The majority of this increase is due to the fact that the average NFL game has more possessions than it did a few years ago.
Length of an NFL Game by Offensive Possession
The average NFL game is about 60 minutes long, but the length of an NFL game can vary depending on how many offensive possessions each team has. If each team has a lot of offensive possessions, the game will be longer. If each team has fewer offensive possessions, the game will be shorter.
The average NFL game has about 11 minutes of possession for each team, but this can vary from game to game. In a typical NFL game, each team will have the ball for about half the time. The other half of the time is spent on special teams (kicking and punting) and defense.
So, if you want to know how long an NFL game will be, you need to know how many offensive possessions each team is likely to have. The number of offensive possessions depends on a number of factors, including:
-The style of play for each team (e.g., how often they run or pass the ball)
-The effectiveness of each team’s offense (e.g., how often they score points)
-The effectiveness of each team’s defense (e.g., how often they prevent the other team from scoring points)
-The turnover rate for each team (e.g., how often they lose possession of the ball)
-The pace of play for each team (e.g., how quickly they move the ball down the field)
Length of an NFL Game by Defensive Possession
The average NFL game consists of about 12 possessions for each team. If you take out the time between possessions (including penalties, huddles, incomplete passes, and other stoppages), the average NFL play only lasts about four seconds. So, if you do the math, an average NFL game should last about 48 minutes. But it doesn’t. The typical NFL game is closer to three hours long. So what’s taking up all that extra time?
Most of the extra time in an NFL game is taken up by watching the defense. On average, each team has the ball on offense for about 27 minutes, while the defense is on the field for 38 minutes. That’s more than a half-hour difference! Why is that?
There are a few reasons why defensive possessions take longer than offensive ones. For one thing, there are more opportunities for a break in play on defense than on offense. A quarterback can throw an incomplete pass or be sacked, but those are pretty much the only ways an offensive play can end abruptly. On defense, however, there can be a lot of stops and starts – a tackled runner, a sack, a pass deflection, etc. All of these stops require resetting the play clock and often result in a TV timeout (more on that later).
Another reason defensive possessions take longer is because defenses are generally more complex than offenses. There are more players involved and more things to keep track of. This means that there are more opportunities for something to go wrong and for the play clock to run down as players scramble to get lined up correctly.
Finally, one last factor contributing to longer defensive possessions is simply that referees tend to call more penalties on defense than they do on offense. This makes sense when you think about it – there are more opportunities for infractions on defense (holding, illegal contact, etc.), so it stands to reason that more penalties would be called there.
All things considered, it’s not surprising that games take as long as they do – with all the extra time spent on defense, three hours start to feel about right!
How the Length of an NFL Game Has Changed Over Time
NFL games have increased in length over time, from the average game time in the 1960s of about 47 minutes to the current average game time of about 3 hours. The reasons for this increase are manifold, but can be attributed to increased scoring, more television timeouts, and longer halftime breaks. Let’s take a look at how the length of an NFL game has changed over time.
How the Length of an NFL Game Has Changed Since 1978
The National Football League (NFL) is the professional American football league in the United States, consisting of 32 teams. The NFL is the highest professional level of American football in the world. NFL games are divided into four quarters, each quarter lasting 15 minutes. The game clock is stopped whenever a play ends out of bounds, a penalty is called, or a touchdown is scored. In 1978, NFL games averaged just under 3 hours in length.
Since then, the average length of an NFL game has increased by about 30 minutes. In 2008, the average game time was 3 hours and 7 minutes.
The main reason for the increase in game time is that the number of commercials has increased significantly over time. In 1978, there were an average of 60 commercials per game. In 2008, there were an average of 110 commercials per game.
Another reason for the increase in game time is that the number of plays has increased over time. In 1978, there were an average of 146 plays per game. In 2008, there were an average of 153 plays per game.
The increase in commercial breaks and plays has resulted in a significant increase in the length of NFL games over the past thirty years.
How the Length of an NFL Game Has Changed Since 2002
In 2002, the average NFL game lasted 3 hours and 7 minutes, according to TV By the Numbers. In 2012, that number had risen to 3 hours and 11 minutes. In 2017, it was 3 hours and 9 minutes. So, while the average length of an NFL game has fluctuated over the years, it has generally gotten longer since 2002.
A big reason for this is that there are more commercials during NFL games now than there were in the past. In 2002, there were 11 minutes of commercials during an average NFL game, according to The Wall Street Journal. In 2017, that number had risen to 14 minutes.
Another reason for the increased length of NFL games is that there are more stoppages of play now than there were in the past. This is because of the increase in instant replay review over the years. According to The Wall Street Journal, there were an average of 12 stoppages of play for review in 2017, up from just two in 2008.
So, if you’re wondering why NFL games seem to be getting longer, it’s because they are. On average, they are about four minutes longer now than they were 15 years ago.
