Football is 4 Minutes

4 minutes.

Every time you step onto this field, every time you are bathed in these lights, you get 4 minutes to define your career, shape the game, and showcase your style of play.

Why only 4 minutes?

Because when you break it all down, the average high school football game consists of 120 to 150 plays, combining both offensive and defensive plays from both teams. This number can vary based on several factors, including the style of play, game tempo, and the balance between running and passing plays.

Let’s go with the higher number: 150 plays.

If we only count one team’s plays, that drops to 75 plays.

Most players only play one way—say on defense—so we can cut that number in half again to 37.5 plays.

Since there is no such thing as half of a play, let’s round that up to 38 plays.

Each play typically lasts 4 to 6 seconds from snap to whistle. The actual time can vary based on the type of play—quick passes and runs might be on the shorter end, while longer passes or plays with broken tackles may extend toward the 6-second range or slightly longer.

Once again, let’s take the maximum: 6 seconds per play.

Now, multiplying 38 plays times 6 seconds gives you 228 seconds—that’s 3 minutes and 48 seconds of actual play time. Let’s go ahead and round that up to 4 minutes.

All of your hard work—spring installs, summer training, weightlifting, two-a-days, practices, drills, and countless reps—comes down to just 4 minutes of actual play during a game.

4 minutes!

That’s the same amount of time you’d spend listening to a song or scrolling through Tik Tok.

Then think about this:

There are 525,600 minutes in a year.

We’re only asking for 4 of those minutes from you on game night.

4 minutes of everything they’ve got.

4 minutes of pure focus, intensity, and heart.

4 minutes of unwavering hustle.

Riffing off Elmo in the movie Vision Quest: “It ain’t the 4 minutes. It’s what happens in that 4 minutes.”

In those 4 minutes, you can alter the outcome of the game—and give each and every one of us a glimpse of what is possible when a human fully commits.

So, let me ask you again:

Can you give us 4 minutes?

Four legacy-leaving minutes?

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This post is part of my latest book project titled: “Football is _______”

Every two weeks, I’ll fill in the above blank with a word or phrase and tell a story. I’ll do that for 52 weeks and then compile the posts into a book of essays.

I’d love for you to join me on this journey and share your thoughts or stories along the way. If you enjoyed this post, please consider sharing it with others who might appreciate it as well.

Stay tuned for future updates on instagram (@blucollarprof).

Read previous posts in this series.

Thanks for reading! – shawn