Typical NFL Game: 11 minutes of action

[borg]

Let's call it:
5 minutes offense
5 minutes defense
1 minute special teams

16 game season, typical offense is engaged:
80 minutes over 4 months
20 minutes over 1 month
5 minutes over 1 week

Now let's look at hockey...the Bruins are a good example:
Regular season games: 82
playoff games: 25
total games: 107
total actual game time: 6,420 minutes

Now let's look at extreme example: Zdeno Chara
Chara averaged 26 minutes/game vs. Vancouver=5+ games for typical NFL starter.
In fact Chara completed a typical NFL season in 3 games.

So let's review: Chara plays 30 times more minutes than typical NFL player in equally physical sport (let the debate begin) and somehow he can play 2-4 games per week over 9 months.....yet the NFLPA believes that increasing the schedule by two games, totalling an extra 10 minutes of field battle is too much for their members.

3-2-1....let the attacks begin .....

 

[Beecke]

I don´t think the two sports are the same physically at all.

And anyway, over the last few years I have read so many utterly depressing and horrific stories of former NFL players, who are living the life of 80 year olds (health wise) in their 40s, that I will never hold it against them if they don´t want to play another two regular season games. We are talking about people here who seriously risk to have any kind of acceptable life after the NFL. (Nevermind that most of the bad stuff happens during practice though)

I have not read as many stories about hockey players, maybe there is not that big a focus on them, but probably they still live a good life getting older for the majority of times.

In any case, I don´t need to compare the NFL with any other league, the situation of quite a few of those players after retirement is bad enough to not underestimate their claims.

 

[Deus Irae]

In before thread gets sent to practice squad

 

[Tunescribe]

Let's call it:
5 minutes offense
5 minutes defense
1 minute special teams

16 game season, typical offense is engaged:
80 minutes over 4 months
20 minutes over 1 month
5 minutes over 1 week

Now let's look at hockey...the Bruins are a good example:
Regular season games: 82
playoff games: 25
total games: 107
total actual game time: 6,420 minutes

Now let's look at extreme example: Zdeno Chara
Chara averaged 26 minutes/game vs. Vancouver=5+ games for typical NFL starter.
In fact Chara completed a typical NFL season in 3 games.

So let's review: Chara plays 30 times more minutes than typical NFL player in equally physical sport (let the debate begin) and somehow he can play 2-4 games per week over 9 months.....yet the NFLPA believes that increasing the schedule by two games, totalling an extra 10 minutes of field battle is too much for their members.

3-2-1....let the attacks begin .....

You're comparing apples and oranges, and you're dead wrong about the sports being "equally physical." Much of this depends on position, of course, as both sports often rotate players depending upon time on the ice/field and situation. In hockey, exertion is more "continuous" but most contact is incidental and seldom head-on. In football, most players engage in contact on every play -- approximately 62 collisions PER GAME for linemen. Deliberately intentional contact in hockey (announcers even keep stats on "hits" vs. routine glancing checks on the boards) are a fraction of those seen in football. Hockey is more aerobic, football is more anaerobic. Both are very physical but in different ways.

 

[Gainzo]

borg makes a good point about actual "action" in football. Why does a 60 minute NFL game take 3+ hours to play? Commercials, timeouts, TV timeouts, running plays, time spent in the huddle, running down the clock, etc.

Don't get me wrong as I love the NFL; but there is a reason the game isn't very popular in just about every other Country.

 

[JoeSixPat]

It's pointless to compare the violent chess of the NFL to the checkers on ice of the NHL. Both are good sports.

 

[borg]

You're comparing apples and oranges, and you're dead wrong about the sports being "equally physical." Much of this depends on position, of course, as both sports often rotate players depending upon time on the ice/field and situation. In hockey, exertion is more "continuous" but most contact is incidental and seldom head-on. In football, most players engage in contact on every play -- approximately 62 collisions PER GAME for linemen. Deliberately intentional contact in hockey (announcers even keep stats on "hits" vs. routine glancing checks on the boards) are a fraction of those seen in football. Hockey is more aerobic, football is more anaerobic. Both are very physical but in different ways.

Incidental? I guess skating at 25 MPH and getting slammed into boards that don't give is nothing like a lineman traveling five feet toward a squishy NT. And think about what an NHL defenseman goes through night in and night out. Hand to hand combat ....or should I say stick to throat/stick to back in front of their net ....followed by sprints up ice. 100mph slapshots at their ankles...scrums/fights nightly. The only difference is hockey players don't lead with their heads, yet concussions seem equally prevalent.
My point for this discussion was to point out how one set of athletes can recover and compete....and don't forget practice daily when not competing....every other night while the NFL whines about adding 10 minutes of actual excertion.

 

[chicowalker]

borg makes a good point about actual "action" in football. Why does a 60 minute NFL game take 3+ hours to play? Commercials, timeouts, TV timeouts, running plays, time spent in the huddle, running down the clock, etc.

Don't get me wrong as I love the NFL; but there is a reason the game isn't very popular in just about every other Country.

eh, people define "action" differently. I like soccer, but I don't buy the notion that it is action filled just because the ball is constantly moving. And it's not just about scoring, as evidenced (imo) by the "action" and scoring of the NBA.

 

[chicowalker]

Incidental? I guess skating at 25 MPH and getting slammed into boards that don't give is nothing like a lineman traveling five feet toward a squishy NT. And think about what an NHL defenseman goes through night in and night out. Hand to hand combat ....or should I say stick to throat/stick to back in front of their net ....followed by sprints up ice. 100mph slapshots at their ankles...scrums/fights nightly. The only difference is hockey players don't lead with their heads, yet concussions seem equally prevalent.
My point for this discussion was to point out how one set of athletes can recover and compete....and don't forget practice daily when not competing....every other night while the NFL whines about adding 10 minutes of actual excertion.

He did say most contact is incidental, not that there are no ferocious hits.

I do think the general point of the type of contact is spot on. The recovery is simply different. Especially when guys in the NFL regularly weigh 30% to nearly 100% (granted, at the far end) more than NHL players, you've just got a different kind of contact and a different kind of recovery (imo).

 

[patriot lifer]

borg makes a good point about actual "action" in football. Why does a 60 minute NFL game take 3+ hours to play? Commercials, timeouts, TV timeouts, running plays, time spent in the huddle, running down the clock, etc.

Don't get me wrong as I love the NFL; but there is a reason the game isn't very popular in just about every other Country.

Not that I completely disagree with this argument, but...when we make the age-old comparison to Soccer (that's football to you Brits out there), soccer has lots of time during its "continuous play" where essentially nothing happens. Like when the ball is passed back and forth between the same 3 guys in the middle of the field and the game ends at 0-0. Many will call it suspense, but we have plenty of that in American football too. But this is all OT.

Edit: Plus, I don't think patience is a quality exceptional to us (as compared to other countries). In fact, if anything, we should hate football, lol.

 

[NSPF]

I don't mean to "attack," but such egregious misuse of statistics and numbers is always appalling to me.

According to the NFLPA (which could admittedly potentially skew the numbers in some way), the average number of injuries in the NFL, per week, per team, is around 3.5 (3.7 last season), which means that if your claimed 11 minutes of action is accurate, a player gets hurt on average every ~3 minutes. I don't have stats for hockey, but it's perfectly clear to everyone that injuries don't occur every three minutes. Injuries don't even occur every 60 minutes.

Football has a drastically higher injury rate (injuries/time) than hockey does, which means that your numbers are completely irrelevant. If the NFLPA's numbers are right, or even close to right, it would appear that adding two more games would cause each team to potentially have an average of six or seven more injuries each year, which is why many people are opposed to the 18 game season.

 

[Gainzo]

Not that I completely disagree with this argument, but...when we make the age-old comparison to Soccer (that's football to you Brits out there), soccer has lots of time during its "continuous play" where essentially nothing happens. Like when the ball is passed back and forth between the same 3 guys in the middle of the field and the game ends at 0-0. Many will call it suspense, but we have plenty of that in American football too. But this is all OT.

Not a soccer guy. I'm Australian so I grew up with Aussie Rules Football and Rugby. The comment I made was from my Aussie friends who like American football but get frustrated with all the stoppages.

 

[patriot lifer]

Not a soccer guy. I'm Australian so I grew up with Aussie Rules Football and Rugby. The comment I made was from my Aussie friends who like American football but get frustrated with all the stoppages.

I can believe it.

 

[Triumph]

It's pointless to compare the violent chess of the NFL to the checkers on ice of the NHL. Both are good sports.

Precisely

The NFL has had to implement new rules to prevent players from serious injury.The NFL is far more dangerous and violent.

 

[patriot lifer]

Let's call it:
5 minutes offense
5 minutes defense
1 minute special teams

16 game season, typical offense is engaged:
80 minutes over 4 months
20 minutes over 1 month
5 minutes over 1 week

Now let's look at hockey...the Bruins are a good example:
Regular season games: 82
playoff games: 25
total games: 107
total actual game time: 6,420 minutes

Now let's look at extreme example: Zdeno Chara
Chara averaged 26 minutes/game vs. Vancouver=5+ games for typical NFL starter.
In fact Chara completed a typical NFL season in 3 games.

So let's review: Chara plays 30 times more minutes than typical NFL player in equally physical sport (let the debate begin) and somehow he can play 2-4 games per week over 9 months.....yet the NFLPA believes that increasing the schedule by two games, totalling an extra 10 minutes of field battle is too much for their members.

3-2-1....let the attacks begin .....

While there's something to the argument, nobody is going to argue that one game of NFL football is less debilitating on the body than one game of NHL hockey. Increasing the number of games by 2 adds 1/8th to the schedule, or 12.5%. If they were capable of playing a lot more football games, then we'd sooner see best of 3 in the playoffs and games occurring more frequently than once per week. But in reality, at the end of the season, everyone is beat up. They may not appear on the injury report, but they're beat up.

 

[Deus Irae]

Precisely

The NFL has had to implement new rules to prevent players from serious injury.The NFL is far more dangerous and violent.

The NHL has also had to implement new rules to prevent players from serious injury.

 

[Triumph]

The NHL has also had to implement new rules to prevent players from serious injury.

They have helmet to helmet hits in the NHL on a frequent basis?

The fact that the NHL can plays as many games as it does and with a playoff format of a couple of days rest between games says everything.

 

[Tunescribe]

Incidental? I guess skating at 25 MPH and getting slammed into boards that don't give is nothing like a lineman traveling five feet toward a squishy NT. And think about what an NHL defenseman goes through night in and night out. Hand to hand combat ....or should I say stick to throat/stick to back in front of their net ....followed by sprints up ice. 100mph slapshots at their ankles...scrums/fights nightly. The only difference is hockey players don't lead with their heads, yet concussions seem equally prevalent.
My point for this discussion was to point out how one set of athletes can recover and compete....and don't forget practice daily when not competing....every other night while the NFL whines about adding 10 minutes of actual excertion.

Yes, hockey contact is incidental. Which means, the amount and severity of contact varies significantly from player to player, game to game. As much contact as there is in hockey at the pro level, it's not as integral to the sport as it is to football. Football collisions happen more often at a higher rate of "torque," relatively speaking: Look at injury rates and the types of injuries sustained compared to those in hockey. Again, your attempt to define this in terms of "minutes" played is apples to oranges -- aerobic action on ice w/skates vs. anaerobic action on turf w/cleats is not a linear comparison.

 

[TruthSeeker]

Not a soccer guy. I'm Australian so I grew up with Aussie Rules Football and Rugby. The comment I made was from my Aussie friends who like American football but get frustrated with all the stoppages.

I watch 95% of my football using a DVR, typically starting to watch 45-60 minutes after the opening kickoff. I highly recommend it if you prefer to just watch the action.

 

[Deus Irae]

They have helmet to helmet hits in the NHL on a frequent basis?

The fact that the NHL can plays as many games as it does and with a playoff format of a couple of days rest between games says everything.

I was responding to something specific you said: "The NFL has had to implement new rules to prevent players from serious injury.". As for head shots, guys like Savard could explain it to you, I'm sure.