Sports Talk

PSA for anyone new to the NFL: the clock is lying to you

Retired mechanic here, been watching football since the TVs had knobs. Every year a few of my nephew's foreign friends ask me why a '60 minute' game takes over three hours. So here's the cheat sheet.

The clock stops on incomplete passes, when a player runs out of bounds, for timeouts, for reviews, and for commercials. Lots of commercials. Go get a sandwich in the second quarter, you won't miss a thing.

The last two minutes of each half take about as long as the first twenty. That's normal. Nobody is broken.

Tip: if you only have time for one thing, watch the condensed replays. Forty minutes, all the plays, none of the guys in headsets staring at tablets.

And if your team is losing by 20 at halftime, stay anyway. Or don't. I've stayed for a lot of those and my blood pressure would like a word.