Roger Goodell on length of NFL games: 'It drives me crazy'
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell says that the length of NFL games "drives him crazy" and that the competition committee will look at ways to shorten the games.
Goodell made the comments to MMQB's Peter King on his podcast.
The average NFL game last season was nearly three hours and nine minutes long, compared to the 2008 season when games were six minutes shorter.
“When I watch the games on Sunday, I am watching as a football fan," Goodell said. "I am seeing things that disturb me, or that I find an intrusion. Particularly, as we get into this age now where there are so many distractions for our fans. I don’t want to give them an excuse to move off of football. I want them to be there all the time... We have seen areas that we know we can improve on…
Any fan watching a game can complain about the number of stoppages during the game, such as replay reviews, and the annoying touchdown, commercial, extra point, commercial sequence that tends to go on during nationally televised games.
Goodell says that there are enough votes to get centralized replay in place for next season.
“It drives me crazy when I am watching a game, the amount of time we spend- there is flag that goes down, we go over, we talk to the coach, we then make an announcement, then he goes under the hood, he comes back and sometimes they have a decision and they are standing there waiting before they can make the announcement, until TV gets back," Goodell said. "We obviously want to be well coordinated with our television partners and make sure that experience is right, but it can be done so much more effectively and efficiently.
Goodell has said that the idea of a clock that would between an extra point and the ensuing kickoff would be considered as a way to help with the pace of a game.
- Scooby Axson
