The NFL season is almost over and the Los Angeles Rams and Cincinnati Bengals will face off in the Super Bowl.
The showpiece Super Bowl LVI will take place in the SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California on Sunday, February 13 with the Rams benefitting from being at their home stadium.
It will be a huge occasion with viewers tuning in from around the globe including many who have never watched the sport.
With the growth of the sport in the UK, including the regular international series games held in London, the NFL audience is increasing all the time.
One of the common criticisms of the sport from the British audience is the length of a game.
But just how long does an NFL game last?
How long does a game last?
The game itself lasts an hour, split into four 15-minute quarters.
However, this only tells half the story, with the average game taking 3 hours and 12 minutes to complete.
Why does it take so long?
The management of the clock in an NFL game is a key reason as to why a game takes so long to complete.
Whenever there is a change in possession, the clock stops and sides change their personnel, alternating between their 11-man offensive and defensive units.
Usually, these breaks in play whilst the clock is stopped are marked by commercial breaks as the NFL takes full advantage of its vast global outreach. An average game features around 12 possessions per team, with each change usually welcoming a round of TV commercials.
Factor in roughly two video reviews of controversial calls, penalties, three time-outs per side where they can tactically choose to stop the clock and a break with two minutes remaining at the end of each half and it’s clear to see how the number of commercial breaks significantly increases the time a game takes to complete.
How can the length of games differ so much?
As mentioned, the average NFL game takes 3 hours and 12 minutes to complete, but this can vary drastically.
In 2008, a game between the Tennessee Titans and Indianapolis Colts broke a 12-year record for the fastest NFL game, finishing in 2 hours, 33 minutes whereas some games have been known to go on to close to four hours. How can these times vary by such a degree?
A number of factors speed up or slow down a game. When the ball stays within the field of play, such as a run or pass where the player is tackled in bounds, the clock continues to run. If there are few incomplete passes or plays where the ball carrier runs out of bounds, then this will inevitably eat up large amounts of time from the 60 minutes of play time as well as giving less time for commercial breaks.
Teams are also under no obligation to use all of their time-outs, and if there are less changes in possession then this will also shorten proceedings somewhat.
Why all the stoppages?
Although commercial breaks have become a key part of the NFL game, these were merely inserted into periods of the game where stoppages already occurred.
For a British sports market accustomed to watching 80 or 90 minutes of ongoing action in rugby or football, the American Football concept can be hard to understand.
It has been calculated that the average game features just 18 minutes of the ball being live, and it is hard to see why this needs to take around three hours to complete.
But each of these plays lasts an average of just four seconds, and those four seconds are as explosive and full-on as can be imagined.
Whereas a rugby player may constantly be on the move for 80 minutes and react to things on-the-fly, those four seconds of each American Football play are meticulously planned and involve maximum explosive effort.
The sport is often compared to a “physical game of chess” as each side takes the break between plays - they have 40 seconds from the end of one play to the start of the next - to come up with their next tactical move to take the ball further down the field or stop their opponents.
The stoppages between plays are simply part and parcel of the game to allow players to recover energy to go full speed again just a few seconds later and ensure coaches can plot their next play call.
Will the Super Bowl last even longer?
In short, yes. The Super Bowl takes an average of 3 hours, 12 minutes to complete.
This is mainly because of the famous half-time show which has become a central part of the event, played by acts such as The Weeknd, Maroon 5, Justin Timberlake, Lady Gaga and Coldplay in recent years.
Whereas a standard NFL half-time lasts just 12 minutes, the Super Bowl half-time show lasts around 20-30 minutes, and this event is the main reason why the showpiece game lasts slightly longer than a standard fixture.
