In pro football, how much time is expended in actual advancing of the football, either running or passing?

Answer 1

It takes approximately 10 seconds to run from one end of the field to the other, so that should be pretty close to the maximum amount of time required for each play.

In practice, I think you could count on running 20 plays in the last 2 minutes if the clock stopped at the end of each play. Each play would have to be an incomplete pass or wind up out of bounds (something defenders know).

Theoretically, a player could fumble or lateral the ball out of bounds to stop the clock if they couldn't reach the sideline (remember USC-ND). But intentionally doing that would also result in a 5 yard penalty and loss of down, so it would have to be a truly desparate situation to be worth it.

Total time spent with the ball in play would be around 6 seconds times the number of plays per game. I think it would be around 12 minutes per game, but you'd have to look at a few box scores to get any kind of accurate number for it.

Answer 2

About 1hr to 1hr. 30min. depending on whether the running or passing is wasting the clock or not. The other 4 hours are everything else invovled, like play calling.