Games played in NFL compared to Baseball (163), NBA and NHL (82), EPL (38), MLS (34), are the least, with each team playing 17 games. Summing up a total of 272 games during an 18-week season period inclusive of one ‘bye’ week off.
Unlike other leagues, players don’t have to be on the lookout to evade a 300-pound tackle from a lineman on multiple occasions, this makes NFL strenuous for players due to the physical trauma experienced. This Increases players susceptability to injuries due to fatigue.
The off season is scheduled in a way to allow players rehab from their injuries and get ready for the training camp and preseason.
NFL Season Break Down
The season begins on the first weekend of September, after the labor day holiday, and then ends in January for the playoffs to begin. The games are allocated five-time slots during the week, beginning from Thursday to Monday, with occasional games on Saturday and thanksgiving day games.
NFL initially expanded the league to a 16 games from 14 game schedule, a presidency that lasted 43 years before being altered in the 2021 offseason to 17 games. The increase means that there are 3 pre-season games, unlike the 4 games played with a 16-game regular season schedule.
The players exempted are the Hall of Fame Game participants who will settle for a fourth game. These changes also affect the Super Bowl schedule, with the regular season having extended for a week now, the Super Bowl takes place on 13th Feb, to a second Sunday in Feb.
This, informed with the fact that the season will still start at the same time has pushed the playoff by one week. The symmetrical scheduling of home and away games will be unbalanced season in, season out, as other teams will have to settle for home games(9) than road games(8) and vice versa.
To determine the 17th match-up, the team that finishes first, second, third, and so on in the NFC East will have to play the subsequent team, in a similar position from the AFC East. Each team plays three teams in its own division, twice, then all the four teams in AFC and NFC, once, two inter-conference games and another additional inter-conference game.
A Look At The Gist Of An NFL Game
Each game is an engaging contact game with teams having 40 seconds between plays from one end to the start of the next play to take the ball further downfield or intercept their opponent’s play.
The stoppage intervals are meant to give players a breather as they recover their strength for coaches to make tactical changes. While the allotted game time is 90 minutes divided into four quarters, the average NFL game lasts about 3 hours 12 minutes, with some known to go to 4 hours.
One with the record-breaking finish lasted 2hrs, 33 minutes. Despite this longevity, it’s estimated that the average live ball in a game is a dismal 11 minutes, with each play lasting to four seconds.
The sizable chunk of time is consumed by the change in possession, video reviews, penalties, timeouts(3 per team). On the flip side, less change in possession, teams not maximizing time outs, complete passes, in-bound tackles would ensure less time is consumed.
Super Bowl takes an average of 3hrs 44 minutes, due to the half-time show, which is allotted an increase of 23 minutes from 12 (the standard half-time duration).
