The NFL is speeding up, so don’t peel your eyes from the screen, take a bathroom break, or grab a beer because you might miss something. That is in one part a result of the hurry-up offenses that have increased the number snaps from center on a per-game basis. A sample is the Patriots: in 2013, they snapped the ball six times more per game than they did ten years ago; the Saints had four more snaps per game; and the Bills eight more times as most NFL teams are now using some type of hurry up offense.
Many of the teams are also now using the no-huddle offense on many plays. Ten years ago only three percent of plays were no-huddle, in 2013, 6.6 percent were no-huddle, and in 2013, 12.2 percent no-huddle plays. Thus in 2013, the Bears, Broncos, Patriots, Chargers and Eagles upped their scores with the no-huddle offense and likely many teams will follow.
The game plays are also speeding up in College Football, as back in 2004 the team’s averaged 68 snaps a game, while in 2013 it was 71 snaps per game. Many games seem to pass in a blur. Alabama Coach Saban lobbied to do away with the quick snap as his team does not seem to do well with it, and would like the tactic to have restrictions. Last New Year’s game between Texas A&M and Duke saw a sample of the game speeding up the two no huddle offenses had a total of 150 snaps and 100 points scored between them.
Not only is the game speeding up, but it is also viewed differently by fans. The Red Zone of the NFL is a marathon of snaps for seven hours with no pauses, no commercials, but one snap after the other in the Sunday marathon from games throughout the NFL. If that does confuse you with its speed then you can try the Game Rewind presented by the NFL, where they condense all center snaps and that’s it!
With the NFL being the USA’s number one king of sports, professional football is an image of its society in many ways. Thus, the life of the Americans appears faster, crazier, noisier as it is with football these days. Previously, the top sport and national pastime was baseball, a very slow and graceful game. But the MLB eventually lost the first place ranking of sports in the USA. Can you imagine a baseball games with the pitcher only getting five seconds between pitches? And no, that would not work.