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A study by the Wall Street Journal in 2010 showed that an average NFL game has just 11 minutes of actual action based on the amount of time the ball is actually in play. While a lot of other things do go on in between plays, that leaves a lot of time that networks must fill during a typical 3-hour broadcast.
Well, according to Vox.com, most of that time is spent just showing players standing around and doing nothing. During one recent NFL game, the network broadcast spent 35% of the game showing players just standing around. That would be approximately 64 minutes of inaction during a typical game. Another 24.5% of the broadcast was dedicated to commercials, meaning more than half of the game is either commercials or players standing around.
Football sounds a little less exciting when framed this way.
BusinessInsider.com