Pace of the Game

Football season is upon us. And I have to say, I’m not really that enthusiastic. I mean, I want to be. I’ve watched the Gators play for near twenty years now. It’s a fall tradition.

But it’s so boring. Which is funny, because that is the accusation normally thrown at baseball. Average times for an MLB game is about 3hrs 5min and an NCAA football game 3hrs 24min. That makes football games 19min, on average, longer than the supposed slow baseball games. These times have only been getting longer too, as back in 2006, they were averaging only 3hrs 7min.

These are just averages though. Baseball games can be significantly shorter, some getting under two hours (but can be significantly longer). But a football game? Those don’t vary by much. There’s a reason a ‘football minute’ is commonly understood to be three minutes. Games are always three hours.

Their difference in overall length really isn’t far apart. 19min over a three-hour span is a pretty minor difference. So why does a football game feel like a chore?

Goddamn commercials, man. There are so many commercials. Baseball, there is almost never a commercial in the middle of a half-inning. A team has their turn to bat, then a commercial break while the teams switch places. Uninterrupted baseball in between.

In football? So many commercials. So many breaks in play. I actually got excited during one game when I noticed it had been over 5min since I had looked at my phone because there hadn’t been a break that whole stretch.

Now, baseball can be pretty slow too. You can go several whole innings where nothing seems to have happened. No ones getting on base. No one’s even getting hits that aren’t pop flies that are pretty much automatic outs. In football, the ball is moving up and down the field. Players are everywhere, throwing, running. Much more action.

Which, for me at least, is the part of my problem. There’s too much going on during the actual play that I can’t really follow it. Aside from the quarterback, and potentially the receiver, I have no idea what any particular player is doing. They’re all just a blob of bodies on the screen. During replays you can see some cool actions sometimes but there’s no anticipation then. You already know what happened.

In baseball, you only ever need to focus on one thing. The pitcher and batter. Then whoever is catching the ball. Then whoever they throw the ball too. It’s much easier to track who is actually doing something. Which means its more interesting to watch.

All of the action in football occurs at once in a condensed burst. Baseball is spread out so whenever it’s on screen, there is something going on, even if it’s not very much. For football, you need to watch for a few specific seconds and nothing for a few minutes. It seems like nothing happens in baseball for awhile, but the whole time the players are playing, pitches are being thrown. In football, literally nothing happens for long stretches because the players aren’t playing, and then BOOM, everything happens and its over. Now rewatch what just happened ten times.

Maybe I’m just old and boring. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t dislike a good football game. I just wish there wasn’t so much dead time. Maybe I should try NFL games sometime. See if those feel any different. At least I wouldn’t feel like I’m watching a bunch of kids being exploited for money.