A Lot of Standing Around

A British soccer coach once complained to me that he found American football very boring, compared to soccer: "Typical American sport," he groused. "Most of the time is spent watching players standing around waiting for something to happen." A recent article in the Wall Street Journal provides the statistics to back him up.

During of the typical 3-hour football broadcast, it seems, about 67 minutes is devoted to players huddling or generally milling about, 60 minutes is spent on commercials, 17 minutes is devoted to replays, 12 minutes or so are devoted to showing referees or head coaches...and just 11 minutes --- or about 1/16 of the total air time devoted to the game --- is actually taken up playing football.

And we wonder why we're losing our edge in the world: even our top athletes spend more time loafing on the job than they do working.



JEFFREY CAMINSKY, a veteran public prosecutor in Detroit, Michigan, specializes in the appellate practice of criminal law and writes on a wide range of topics. His books include the science fiction adventure novel The Star Dancers, the exciting second volume in the Guardians of Peace-tm series, The Sonnets of William Shakespeare, and the acclaimed Referee’s Survival Guide, a book on soccer officiating. All are published by New Alexandria Press, and are available on Amazon, as well as directly from the publisher.