Roger Goodell Says There Is 'Positive Reaction' to 'Shot Clock' Before Kickoffs

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told the NFL Network's Judy Battista on Thursday (h/t Marc Sessler of NFL.com) that the league is considering instituting a shot clock that would run between extra points and the ensuing kickoffs.

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I think there was a very positive reaction to that. Most of the players that are on the extra point -- maybe a tight end, maybe a kicker -- are not on the kickoff team. So their special teams coaches will have to get prepared for the kickoff team and get them out there. Of course, this is when we don't go to a commercial break. But there's a lot of wasted time in there where, again, we want to take that out of the game. And this does not affect the 156 plays during the game. This is all about outside of the plays and what we can do to try and take that downtime out.

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Goodell stressed that the league and NFL competition committee have been trying to find ways to speed up the game for some time.

"It has been an effort for a long period of time," he noted. "We've talked about the length of the game. This effort's not as focused on the length of the game. This is focused on what's happening outside the plays—how fast we get the ball set, the number of breaks, the number of intrusions—so that fans can focus on the action."

One plan of action would be adjusting the way the league and broadcasts handle television timeouts between kickoffs. Often, a current broadcast will go to commercial both before and after a kickoff, and the commissioner acknowledged that isn't the ideal viewing experience for NFL fans.

"It's not necessarily the length (of commercial breaks), it's the number," he said. "So we're gonna reduce it by 25 percent. We're gonna add a commercial to each of those (breaks) but it's something we're testing with our fans, (and) they actually didn't even notice that. What they notice is the number of breaks."

He added that the ideal time for an NFL game would be right around three hours and two minutes.

It isn't a huge surprise that the NFL is trying to take measures to ensure fans stay engaged during the broadcast. The league's ratings reportedly dropped by eight percent during the 2016 regular season, per Darren Rovell of ESPN, and the NFL is now competing with the growing trend of people canceling their cable plans and splitting their attention between multiple screens at any given time.

In other words, at a time when people often stream the content they want, when they want, the NFL is trying to remain appointment viewing for sports fans.