A number of years ago a buddy of mine who was a Jets fan ( I was a Giants fan, at the time) was whining about the latest Jet disaster. He made the comment that "the defense was on the field too long." Having played in high school I mentioned that "if the Jet defense was on the field too long so was the other team's offense. How come they didn't get tired? Maybe your boys are simply not in shape."
The discussion escalated to the point where I watched a football game with a stop watch and found that in the first quarter the ball was actually in play for exactly 2 minutes and 14 seconds, or, just under 9 minutes of "action" in the entire one-hour game. The rest of the time they were mainly standing around while the clock ticked down. On tv they cover the dead spots with replay after replay but when you actually go to a game there is a lot of standing around doing nothing. TV allots 3 hours to a football broadcast which means the other two hours are just one long beer commercial.
I don't follow football at all anymore. I hate being conned. At least in baseball the winners have to record 27 outs and score a run themselves.
If I want "action" I watch hockey.
The discussion escalated to the point where I watched a football game with a stop watch and found that in the first quarter the ball was actually in play for exactly 2 minutes and 14 seconds, or, just under 9 minutes of "action" in the entire one-hour game. The rest of the time they were mainly standing around while the clock ticked down. On tv they cover the dead spots with replay after replay but when you actually go to a game there is a lot of standing around doing nothing. TV allots 3 hours to a football broadcast which means the other two hours are just one long beer commercial.
I don't follow football at all anymore. I hate being conned. At least in baseball the winners have to record 27 outs and score a run themselves.
If I want "action" I watch hockey.
