The time length of American Sports

[SirAnderson]

I just recently started to watch some of the NA sports like Baseball, Basketball, occasionally American Football, and I'm just baffled as to how LONG it is! All of them averaging about 3 hours long.
Ice Hockey too (Don't watch it but its just as long, and I know it was invented in Canada, but close enough for me )

Coming from watching football as my first sport, its such a steep adjustment. Some games keep my attention, but average of 3 hours is crazy long. Doesn't help that these games are usually in the wee hours of the morning for me too.

In the end, most of the time I just wake up the next day and watch the highlights, but it's not as fulfilling.

Just want to know the thoughts of Americans, is it nothing for you, or do you also struggle with it? Then other folks not in America that also struggle with it, or that it doesn't really both them?


Edit: I realize I watch cricket also Which can take hours and even days, so yeah. Guess its just the time difference that makes it a bummer for me.

 

[okLaptop1]

Then other folks not in America that also struggle with it, or that it doesn't really both them?

I grew up on rugby and league, so yeah it was a major adjustment when I got into the NFL. What's worse than the length is the uncertainty beforehand: it can change drastically depending on many different variables, so it feels like you gotta put aside a whole afternoon to watch a game. Not to mention overtime; sure there can be extra time in football for knockout tournaments, but in american sports every random regular season game can go into overtime.

Edit: I realize I watch cricket also Which can take hours and even days, so yeah. Guess its just the time difference that makes it a bummer for me.

Test cricket is easy for me because I don't really attention to every ball, I can have it on the background all week basically. ODI on the other hand feels like watching American sports again, especially with all the ad breaks.

 

[Maagge]

And then there's only about 12 minutes of actual play time in an NFL game, so that's great.

 

[VorZakone]

And then there's only about 12 minutes of actual play time in an NFL game, so that's great.

Who the feck enjoys that?

Americans are weird. Also, isn't baseball boring to watch too?

 

[OleBoiii]

What kills me is that despite all this they still have the audacity to call football boring.

 

[Siorac]

What kills me is that despite all this they still have the audacity to call football boring.

Yeah, seriously, the "nothing ever happens in soccer" trope is baffling, especially when it comes from NFL fans: just admit you miss the commercial breaks because you run out of nachos every three minutes and need to get more, you fat feck.

 

[OleBoiii]

Also, isn't baseball boring to watch too?

Baseball is a weird one. On the surface it looks like the most boring out of the lot, but I can sort of understand the appeal. Like with football, every point is significant. It's quite rare, but a baseball game could technically end 1-0(if I remember the rules correctly). This is a crucial aspect, imo. It's essentially a long penalty shootout where the keeper is expected to make the save 9 times out of 10(if that makes sense ).

If you forced me to watch a game of basketball, american football, hockey or baseball, I think I'd choose the latter. Basketball coming in at a close second.

All of the above sucks compared to football, though.

 

[OleBoiii]

Yeah, seriously, the "nothing ever happens in soccer" trope is baffling, especially when it comes from NFL fans: just admit you miss the commercial breaks because you run out of nachos every three minutes and need to get more, you fat feck.

 

[McGrathsipan]

Who the feck enjoys that?

Americans are weird. Also, isn't baseball boring to watch too?

American Football is hard to understand for us Europeans

For a start why is it called football when feet are rarely used. It's like chess with humans and very little ball (egg)skill involved for alot of the players. I think it's one of those games that might be better to play than to watch.
Then you have the breaks in play and the time as the OP mentions. It's far too long but hey sponsors and vendors are probably more important than whats on the pitch. Or is it a field?

Baseball is boring. Agree with that. Again probably better to play than to watch.
Again length is madness but sponsors etc need to get the time.

I like basketball and Ice Hockey for the pure talent and skill involved. Some of the things icehockey players do are insane. But again I couldnt sit down for hours and watch a constant stream of adds for a few minutes of sports.

 

[Mr Pigeon]

Who the feck enjoys that?

Americans are weird. Also, isn't baseball boring to watch too?

Football I understand because there's some strategy involved. Baseball just seems like a day of people trying to hit a stick with a ball.

I feel like it's been named "America's favourite pastime" by some MLB marketing team to bully people into saying they like it, lest they be accused of being a communist hippie libtard or something.

 

[VorZakone]

What kills me is that despite all this they still have the audacity to call football boring.

I once saw an American saying he found football boring because there's "few goals" being scored. That's kinda the whole point of why football is so interesting. 1 goal can decide the game. Every goal is potentially meaningful.

With basketball etc I feel like only the last 10% of a game is interesting because that's when games get decided most likely. Before that last 10% they're just racking up points.

 

[VorZakone]

Also, football is extremely dynamic. No "gaining yards" shit or small pitches. End-to-end action.

 

[SirAnderson]

It's been an interesting experience so far. Baseball is like cricket for me. I've started to watch it, and one game can be completely boring as hell and then all of a sudden come to life, or not, but the next match is cool.
Like I watch the last 3 matches of the Oakland A's against the SF Giants, and it was amazing to watch, the 2 comeback wins in the LAST innings was insane, and then last night they just steamrolled them.

But yeah, every end of innings it goes to ads and ads unless its mlb.tv then it just has that, commercial break, be back soon thing. But its still a long way. I have definitely fallen asleep watching some of it.

The other thing, for someone trying to start watching is the terminology.....feck me, I'm trying to learn it, and actually went to a site with all if it as I watch the game so I can look it up when they speak about it, but man it's crazy if you have no idea what RISP, BB, IP, ER and all the other gazillion abbreviations they have. Imagine trying to explain that in one sitting (same thing applies to american football)

Don't get me started on Basketball, that is just waaaaay to long for me, and I do enjoy it, but can't take the long breaks, time outs and half time performances etc, arrrgh. It's just draining.

 

[SirAnderson]

TBF F1 can also rival these sports in terms of length, and it its current form of competitiveness, can also be a total snorefest.

 

[SirAnderson]

I grew up on rugby and league, so yeah it was a major adjustment when I got into the NFL. What's worse than the length is the uncertainty beforehand: it can change drastically depending on many different variables, so it feels like you gotta put aside a whole afternoon to watch a game. Not to mention overtime; sure there can be extra time in football for knockout tournaments, but in american sports every random regular season game can go into overtime.



Test cricket is easy for me because I don't really attention to every ball, I can have it on the background all week basically. ODI on the other hand feels like watching American sports again, especially with all the ad breaks.

Oh man I hear you on the uncertainty beforehand. I could never commit to it properly cause I don't know if I am going to be up from 3am till 6am or what

And yes, definitely, that's how I watch Test cricket as well, you just know its in the background and can take a look every now and then.
I much prefer T20s these days though cause as you mentioned, ODI's also take the entire day. Particularly don't like it when my team is bowling, prefer to watch my team bat.

 

[RooneyLegend]

Oh man I hear you on the uncertainty beforehand. I could never commit to it properly cause I don't know if I am going to be up from 3am till 6am or what

And yes, definitely, that's how I watch Test cricket as well, you just know its in the background and can take a look every now and then.
I much prefer T20s these days though cause as you mentioned, ODI's also take the entire day. Particularly don't like it when my team is bowling, prefer to watch my team bat.

At least in Cricket the ball gets hit plenty of times in a variety of ways. In Baseball, you basically spend a day to watch people miss the damn thing. Honestly, that's the sport at which I draw the line.

 

[Desert Eagle]

As someone who watches and enjoys the three big American sports I can understand the frustration of new watchers. The commercial aspect of American sports is pushed up to the max. The superbowl is literally famous for its commercials. On the other hand though part of it is to do with player rights too. American football being as intense and demanding as it is, kinda understandable that a lot of breaks is optimal for health and quality of play.

 

[RooneyLegend]

This season I'm devoted to giving the NFL a go cause it's hard to get away from it with the media coverage of it and all. The few matches I've seen it's been difficult because I'm a rugby fan and some of the things they do in american football is hard to understand.

It's supposedly the most macho sport of them all but people run out of bounds all the time to avoid contact. They also take a dive to the ground to avoid contact. As opposed to Rugby which every meter is fought for. Then obviously the constant stoppages are an issue.

However it's so popular that I figure it must be great. I find Basketball to be great period. Been a fan of the sport for some time now. Like pretty much everything about it.

 

[Desert Eagle]

At least in Cricket the ball gets hit plenty of times in a variety of ways. In Baseball, you basically spend a day to watch people miss the damn thing. Honestly, that's the sport at which I draw the line.

Definitely less hits in baseball. You could go a few innings without a hit sometimes but the enjoyment comes from appreciation of the quality of pitching or fielding for me. It also raises the stakes for each hit, like an earlier poster said it has a penalty shootout feel where everything matters.

 

[VorZakone]

This season I'm devoted to giving the NFL a go cause it's hard to get away from it with the media coverage of it and all. The few matches I've seen it's been difficult because I'm a rugby fan and some of the things they do in american football is hard to understand.

It's supposedly the most macho sport of them all but people run out of bounds all the time to avoid contact. They also take a dive to the ground to avoid contact. As opposed to Rugby which every meter is fought for. Then obviously the constant stoppages are an issue.

However it's so popular that I figure it must be great. I find Basketball to be great period. Been a fan of the sport for some time now. Like pretty much everything about it.

Said by who? Rugby looks more macho to me.

 

[JPRouve]

Definitely less hits in baseball. You could go a few innings without a hit sometimes but the enjoyment comes from appreciation of the quality of pitching or fielding for me. It also raises the stakes for each hit, like an earlier poster said it has a penalty shootout feel where everything matters.

For me pitching is more important than hitting, I have no joy watching bad pitching. A no-hitter is a great event.

 

[VorZakone]

Football is the best. Actual football, not American football.

 

[Sky1981]

Football : beat em up tekken style
Baseball : turn based
American football : total war

 

[Ayush_reddevil]

Some of the comments in this thread are the same thing I have been hearing from people for years . People behaving as if every football game is 'end to end' , through the course of the season you get so many absolutely garbage games so silly to pretend that football is definitely more entertaining. From my personal experience I think NFL is hard to get into but if you give it time it is absolutely amazing to watch

 

[VorZakone]

Some of the comments in this thread are the same thing I have been hearing from people for years . People behaving as if every football game is 'end to end' , through the course of the season you get so many absolutely garbage games so silly to pretend that football is definitely more entertaining. From my personal experience I think NFL is hard to get into but if you give it time it is absolutely amazing to watch

What's so amazing about watching commercials?

 

[Cheimoon]

Some of the comments in this thread are the same thing I have been hearing from people for years . People behaving as if every football game is 'end to end' , through the course of the season you get so many absolutely garbage games so silly to pretend that football is definitely more entertaining. From my personal experience I think NFL is hard to get into but if you give it time it is absolutely amazing to watch

Especially watching teams with low skills or teams that park buses... Completely turned me off watching football for years. If you want constant end-to-end action, watch basketball or hockey.

I would agree American football and baseball are boring. Baseball is better in the stadium, since there is constant entertainment whenever the game stops for even a second. I found American football less fun live though; all the waiting for the game to continue (because of commercial breaks on tv, for example) really annoyed me. (Admittedly, I watched Canadian football live; might be different. For example, they have one less down, so they have to just punt it away earlier.)

 

[Mrs Smoker]

What's so amazing about watching commercials?

Maybe there'll be commercials for some great sales.

 

[The Cat]

Also basketball - it is quite often only the last 10 minutes that are worth watching in terms of the result can easily skip the rest in a lot of games as they just build up to the final few minutes.

 

[Sandyman]

It's clear all the people crying about too many breaks and the length of ads in the NFL have never heard of RedZone - 7 hours of ad free live football

 

[Zen]

Also basketball - it is quite often only the last 10 minutes that are worth watching in terms of the result can easily skip the rest in a lot of games as they just build up to the final few minutes.

Incidentally - you can sometimes find that these final 10 minutes take longer to get through than the previous 3 periods. Do they need these many breaks due to their inability to adapt tactics in game or is it just heavily money driven - I.E the ads.

Games with "only a few seconds left" can last like 10-15 minutes.

I put up with it all of course, but Americans are odd, hate football because well "TIES" - but ignore that it's a more intelligent and astute tactical game with constant adjustments in play as the ability to pause isn't there..... I love to see how Basketball pans out with breaks, go out and just play with the quick on-off sub rule. Done in about 70 minutes.

 

[JPRouve]

Incidentally - you can sometimes find that these final 10 minutes take longer to get through than the previous 3 periods. Do they need these many breaks due to their inability to adapt tactics in game or is it just heavily money driven - I.E the ads.

Games with "only a few seconds left" can last like 10-15 minutes.

I put up with it all of course, but Americans are odd, hate football because well "TIES" - but ignore that it's a more intelligent and astute tactical game with constant adjustments in play as the ability to pause isn't there..... I love to see how Basketball pans out with breaks, go out and just play with the quick on-off sub rule. Done in about 70 minutes.

The main reason for timeouts at the end of games is set plays, sometimes you can't really use them optimally without timeouts because some of them are extremely situational and aren't used often enough for players to apply them on the fly, there is also a far bigger emphasis on matchups. It's the same story in Handball or Volleyball.

 

[OnlyTwoDaSilvas]

It's not just the length of the games for me, but also the quantity. In the MLB there's 162 regular season games, then the playoffs which are best of 7. That's an unbelievable amount of games. Then in the NHL and NBA its an 82 game season plus playoffs.

And the NFL is the opposite end of the spectrum, the season feels like it comes and goes so quickly. There's no middleground. Either feckloads of games, or hardly any. How do American sports fans keep up with teams across all sports? Then there's college sports on top of that which seem incredibly popular too.


The NHL is my favourite of the NA sports, but regular season games can be dull as feck because there's just so much of it, a lot of regular season games can really lack intensity, be poorly attended and have zero atmosphere. NFL is the opposite, every game is so crucial and the games are once a week so is easier to keep up with. Playoff hockey is amazing though, and IMO one of the best spectacles in sport.

 

[VorZakone]

The cheerleaders are nice though. Would definitely wanna see them in Europe.

 

[Maagge]

The cheerleaders are nice though. Would definitely wanna see them in Europe.

That's a thing I've never understood. I've seen them a few times in Danish stadiums but what's the point?

 

[utdalltheway]

I’ve gone from watching some of them to none of them.
I used to watch NFL both live and on telly. Same with baseball.
Gave ice hockey a few tries but I just couldn’t get into it and walked out when they had a TV timeout. Never went back and won’t watch it on the telly.
Similar for basketball.
They’re all waay too long with the constant breaks for ads.

Now, if I could get a credit from my TV bill for NOT watching ESPN I’d be golden.

 

[VorZakone]

That's a thing I've never understood. I've seen them a few times in Danish stadiums but what's the point?

Eye candy.

 

[Zen]

The main reason for timeouts at the end of games is set plays, sometimes you can't really use them optimally without timeouts because some of them are extremely situational and aren't used often enough for players to apply them on the fly, there is also a far bigger emphasis on matchups. It's the same story in Handball or Volleyball.

Well yes. It's part and parcel, I know this. I was just being fly - Basketball fans, or well American Football sports fan can heavily criticize Football, completely unaware that it's actually a far more tactically astute game, you don't get the time to set up the 'play' - it's constant movement, so it's constantly evolving within the game. I'm sure Pep would love the "wait they've adjusted - timeout for our counter" - obviously theres a shedton more to it and NBA/NFL are also massive tactical battles themselves.

NBA I feel sometimes would just be a ten times better game if they just shut off timeouts for the final 30 seconds or so. But if I had that, I'd probably regret asking for it - I assume talent would win out 90% of the time either way.

 

[JPRouve]

Well yes. It's part and parcel, I know this. I was just being fly - Basketball fans, or well American Football sports fan can heavily criticize Football, completely unaware that it's actually a far more tactically astute game, you don't get the time to set up the 'play' - it's constant movement, so it's constantly evolving within the game. I'm sure Pep would love the "wait they've adjusted - timeout for our counter" - obviously theres a shedton more to it and NBA/NFL are also massive tactical battles themselves.

NBA I feel sometimes would just be a ten times better game if they just shut off timeouts for the final 30 seconds or so. But if I had that, I'd probably regret asking for it - I assume talent would win out 90% of the time either way.

I disagree with the far more tactically astute part when applied to the games themselves. All the sports that you mentioned have similar tactical basis but they also add situational sets which isn't really a thing in football where individual talent plays a bigger role. Now if you really want to point the finger at a difference between sports it will be regarding individuals, in Football and Rugby players need to be a lot more analytical on the field, in Rugby you have sets of collective movements that depends on where you are on the field and what the opposition is doing and while that it also true for the NFL the difference is that rugby players do not have as much support from the coaching staff during games, they need to read the game themselves and apply instructions that were given to them during the week.

So I wouldn't say that one game is more tactical than the other but for players the application is more complicated in Football and Rugby.

 

[Organic Potatoes]

Said by who? Rugby looks more macho to me.

Doctors, perhaps. Wearing a helmet actually encourages more violent collisions, especially to the head.

I don’t think there’s much between the two in terms of toughness and bravery.

 

[11101]

American sport popularity seems to be inversely proportional to how good they are and how long they last.

NFL - let's be honest, its shite. 3 or 4 hours of breaks with 10 minutes of action where everything moves so fast in so many directions that you can barely see the ball. I think they enjoy the spectacle of the whole thing more than the game itself.

Baseball - literally a game played by schoolchildren in the UK until they're old enough to play a proper sport, I have no idea how they've made into such a big thing over there. The hotdog sellers probably have a lot to do with it.

NBA - I like basketball. Lots to watch and it doesn't last too long, though most excitement comes in the final quarter. Not surprising it's the most popular internationally.

NHL - actually great to watch, I dont know why it's not more popular.