NFL must work to improve pace-of-play, length of games

Technology is rapidly altering how children consume entertainment & media. Can the NFL’s pace-of-play keep up? How can they do so in a technological age?

Is the NFL living in the past when it comes to looking at the future?

Volumes of sports media have been consumed by the reality that, for today’s youth, the game of baseball is too long, and the pace-of-play is too slow. Young people are no longer flocking to America’s Pastime as the children of yesteryear did. But, no one is talking about the other, (financially and socially) larger elephant in America’s Social Room – the NFL.

Of course, we’ve all been privy to voluminous data related to CTE and concussions, and how those are affecting the recruitment of today’s youth to play the game. But, if we’re being honest, the nature of capitalism, and its penchant for putting large segments of the population in desolate poverty, will ensure a steady stream of gladiators for the NFL’s combat arenas. But, what happens when people stop watching?

Children are watching live sports, at home and in the stands, at a rate that should be alarming to financial officers and owners across the spectrum, and the NFL is not immune. According to a study conducted by Magna Global, the average age of NFL viewership rose by four years between 2006 and 2016 (See the full study). That indicates that significantly less young people are watching now, than they were then.

Think about the realities that have made baseball a dying sport (and led to numerous rule changes related to the “pace of play”): games last too long, too much stoppage time, too many commercials, etc. For a 60-minute NFL game to take 3 hour and 15 minutes — with legitimately less than 15 minutes of actual game play — is unsustainable.

My seven-year-old daughter can play outside with her friends, watch 10 YouTube videos and eat two meals in that time span. She loves football, and the Kansas City Chiefs…but she won’t watch more than about four plays at a time because it simply does not move fast enough for her.

Besides taking too long, the game exists now in a way that does not account for shrinking attention spans of today’s youth. According to Dr. Jyothsna Bhat, a licensed clinical psychologist, in their article “Attention Spans In The Age Of Technology,” children today are overloaded by technology and constant, multi-faceted access to media, and that is resulting in a severe decline in overall attention spans. (You can see the full analysis here)

While I am not an expert, and I certainly do not pretend to understand the logistics of making such radical changes, the NFL should strongly consider moving, sooner rather than later, towards both a shorter game length and a faster pace of play.

The first and most obvious way for this to occur is for the NFL to shorten the length of quarters. Quarters in football could stand to be reduced to 10 or 12 minutes each. There is really no argument against this, other than history/record books. The NFL cannot be more concerned with historical data than they are with market optimization – its just not a sustainable business strategy.

Second, teams should get less timeouts. I believe that one time out per half would be sufficient. You could even compel me that two were necessary. Maybe the most ideal would be three, but you can use them at any time (not by half). But, three each half is excessive.

Third, the NFL should shorten or eliminate TV timeouts, and shorten all commercial breaks. Of course, they would lose commercial revenue as a result. The NFL could easily replace that revenue with on screen, on field, and on-uniform advertisements. Sure, they’ll be annoying to look at and take some time to adjust to; but I’d rather see a big Bud Light logo on the field than see 12 commercials from them during the course of a game.

Fourth, all challenges should be initiated from the booth, and all reviews should be conducted by the booth. Put 1-2 officials in the booth, give them all of the technology they need for camera angles, stop/start, rewind, slow-motion, etc.; and give them earpiece communication with the head official on the field.

There is no reason a review should take more than 30 seconds with the technology that exists today. There are plenty of arguments people might make against this change, but we have the technology; use it to make the game as fair as possible.

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I understand most of the arguments that may exist to the contrary of these suggestions. Changing the length and pace of the play would change: the record books, play-calling, and make the game more difficult for athletes. But, in an era of incredible technology and with the reality that today’s NFL athletes are more than up for the challenge; I believe that these suggestions are more than feasible.

Information technology, and access to cyberspace, is radically altering the attention span’s of our children. The NFL must find ways to either keep up, or find itself left out, when today’s 20-somethings (and older) become a thing of the past.