Thirteen Minutes of Fame

Here it is, Super Bowl Weekend again.  Not only are we going to be treated to a super championship game between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks, but we can also speculate on whether or not Boston brought their balls with enough air in them. 

I have to confess that I never knew until now that the teams were allowed to bring their own footballs to the game.  I can't think of any other reason for this concession than that the teams want to customize their balls to their own liking, and that would seem to include inflation.  It seems to me that it encourages cheating, if that is what under- or over-inflation truly is.

While you are watching the spectacular - I don't intend to watch it for reasons you will soon learn - I hope you will get full enjoyment out of the THIRTEEN MINUTES OF ACTION!

I had a house guest a few weeks ago and we were discussing the huge number of commercials that we have to watch (or fast forward through, if you use your DVR like I do) in order to see a program that we have already paid to watch through cable or dish subscription fees. I told him that I can watch a full hour-long program in about 34 minutes if I fast forward through the ads and promos.

Then Steve told me that it is even worse for sports like football.  He said that he had timed the action for a college game and found that the ball is only in play for about thirteen minutes during the three-and-one-half-hours it takes to play the game.

I was floored by that revelation, though I didn't necessarily disagree with his assessment.  However, I decided then and there that I was going to use a stop watch and perform the same ritual for the next pro football game.

The game I happened to choose was the New England-versus-Indianapolis one, that one with all the controversy over 'Deflategate'.   I did try to keep track of the actual time the football was in play.  Huddles, reviews, challenges, replays and time outs didn't count, but kickoffs and extra points, where the clock isn't running, did count. 

As it turned out, I got kind of bored with the timing, so I quit after the first half, but I did get a pretty good reading while I was doing my due diligence.  I can report that the action during that first half amounted to 6 minutes and 32 seconds.  Therefore, I will concur with Steve's numbers and round it off to 13 minutes of actual football action during the entire game.  Heck, it was hardly a workout. 

Well, I don't know about you, but I don't intend to waste all that time on Sunday to watch thirteen minutes of action.  Maybe I'll tune in at the two-minute warning in the second half and watch the last 10 seconds.