How long american football match

Where Is Football Most Popular? Who Created Football In America? Previous Next. Table of Contents. How long is a game of American football? Recent studies have shown that the average NFL game lasts around three hours in total.

Quarters And Halves Football games consist of two 30 minute halves broken down into four 15 minute quarters for NFL and college football. The Game Clock The game clock is used to keep track of time in each of the quarters.

However, the game clock is not continuous and will stop for the following reasons: An incomplete pass A player runs out-of-bounds with the ball An injury occurs A timeout is called 2-minute warning. In the NFL, first downs do not stop the game clock.

This is the main reason college football games are on average longer than NFL games. Halftime — College football halftime is 20 minutes versus an NFL halftime which is only 13 minutes and 30 seconds. This adds nearly 7 minutes to the length of college football in comparison to the NFL. More scores equal more extra points untimed downs and more kickoffs potentially untimed down and more commercial breaks.

This lengthens the game. High school football games typically last between two hours and two and a half hours. They consist of four minute quarters with a halftime in between the second and third quarter. The state of Massachusetts uses minute quarters during the regular season and minute quarters in the playoffs. They are the lone exception to the standard minute quarter length. The average length of a high school football game is very hard to nail down. Across the United States there are many different types of classes of high school football, all with varying levels of talent and styles of play.

In general, you can expect a high school football game to be shorter in length than a college football game and an NFL game. If you are heading to a high school game, although the average game length is typically between two and two and a half hours, be prepared for exceptions because many states use a mercy rule which may cause the game to be much shorter. A mercy rule comes into play in high school football when a predetermined scoring margin is reached at halftime or at any point in the game after halftime for example, one team is ahead at halftime.

Typically, this results in either a the game ending at that point or b the game continuing on with a game clock that never stops in attempt to end the game quicker. Mercy rules greatly reduces the overall length of a game. Currently, 36 states have some form of mercy rule in high school football. High school football halftimes typically last minutes. The length will vary depending on state.

There will be exceptions to this because high school football games are not as formal as college football and the NFL. High school football games usually start at 7pm local time.

They are almost always played on Friday nights. Junior Varsity game will be shorter than varsity football games as they are typically played with only minute quarters and minute halftimes. This will vary depending on state also. The average length of a junior varsity game is likely two hours or shorter.

You can expect a youth football game to last between an hour and an hour and a half. Typically, they consist of four 8-minute quarters separated with a minute halftime. Some advanced youth leagues may use minute quarters. There is usually a very short break in between the quarters that may last a minute or two. Rules vary across youth leagues. Some leagues implement a mercy rule while others do not. Most youth leagues allow each team three timeouts per half. Canadian Football Games are approximately three hours in length.

They consist of four minute quarters with a minute halftime. Canadian Football does not use a running game clock therefore the overall game flow of a CFL game is relatively similar to the flow of an NFL game although there are several rule differences. Arena football games typically last about 2 hours.

They consist of four minute quarters separated by a minute halftime. They do not last as long as NFL games because they use a modified running game clock that only stops for certain situations like a player injury, timeout, or change of possession.

The only exception is the last minute of the second quarter and the last minute of the fourth quarter, where regular football clock management rules apply. The plurality of time 75 minutes was spent watching players, coaches, and referees essentially loiter on the field. Of course, watching football on TV is hardly just about the game; there are plenty of advertisements to show people, too.

The average NFL game includes 20 commercial breaks containing more than ads. Broadcasts of NFL games in Europe, incidentally, include far fewer commercials. By providing your email, you agree to the Quartz Privacy Policy. Hut, hut, hike! Quickly the quarterback drops back, throws the ball to a wide receiver, and then after a few seconds, the player is down, and the referee signals the end of a play with their whistle.

With the wide receiver down by contact on the play, the clock stops running until the next play begins. The quarterback is about to get the ball on the next play, but the defensive team creates an offside penalty, stopping the action. So how long are NFL games precisely with all these breaks? Find out this answer and more below!

NFL games are sixty minutes of game time broken into four minute quarters. Each quarter is set to 15 minutes of game clock time that stops multiple times for various reasons. Stoppages take place for a handful of reasons, which I will outline later down this post. However, the three hours to watch a football consists of a bit over eleven minutes of play , according to The Wall Street Journal.