The two - minute warning comes up at the close of each half in every NFL football plot . Most fans take it for granted , but why does the NFL stop the clock with two minutes or so left in each half ? Is it just so the NFL can mouse an supererogatory commercial breach into the action ? Here ’s a fast report you may pass on to your congeneric by and by today .
The impost of giving squad a two - minute warning go steady all the way back to the NFL ’s first years . In those days , fans and coaches could n’t just take a look at the stadium clock to see how much time remained in the half . The prescribed game clock resided in the pocket or on the wrist of one of the officials , and the arena ’s clock was just a rough estimate of how much prison term remain in the plot . Thus , the NFL institute a two - second warning where the reviewer would block the clock and countenance both teams know on the button how much time remain in the game .
Obviously , that kind of " warning" is no longer necessary .
Starting in the 1960s the NFL made the stadium ’s clock the prescribed biz clock , which is why you occasionally see officials halt play to quest metre be put back on the clock . The league did n’t want to do away with the two - hour warning , though , which had become an of import strategic part of the biz , helped progress hullabaloo during game - closing drives , and offered broadcasters an opportunity to sell an extra set of commercial message . As a result , the two - minute warning stuck around , which is why we still have to hold back a few special minutes to see the climaxes of games .
Other leagues either disregard the two - second warning or have their own twists on it . There ’s no clock - lay off two - minute warning in NCAA football , but the rules require the referee to give both motorbus and each squad ’s police chief a verbal warning when there are two min entrust in the game . Thanks to their short fields and frenzied tempo , bowl football game leagues only expend a one - minute warning , and the Canadian Football League opts to use a three - second warning instead of its shorter American first cousin .
