American Football or Soccer?

Now that football and soccer seasons are kicking off all around the world, the haters of each game are rallying their enthusiasm for dissing the game their least like.  Of course there are those rare human beings with the capacity to love more than just one of the world’s two most popular sports — but among those with strong feelings about the matter, there are many reasons they commonly give for their preferences.

One of the most frequent complaints from people who aren’t into soccer is that the games go on too long, and injury time is ridiculous. A quick comparison of each game might clear some of this up:  Soccer is a 90 minute game divided into two 45 minute halves– and no time outs. Football is played in four 15 minute quarters. It’s really not all that different, timewise, except that in soccer, injury time can take up about 45 minutes of a game.

In American football, the hour-long game regularly takes at least 3 hours to play. After factoring in the 3 timeouts outs allotted  per team, per half , and the timeouts for TV commercial breaks, a 15 minute quarter easily goes on for nearly half an hour.

Here is a great infographic with some comparisons between the two sports: