– Why do NFL teams basically play one quarterback all/every game, while MLB teams play multiple pitchers?
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This is a simple one, so I assume you’re not privy to the sports. Baseball pitchers lose “command” of their pitches, and their arms tire out. This allows for batters to hit better and thus, a fresh-armed pitcher is needed mid-game. In football, the forces on an arm are not as high as in baseball as it is. And they don’t throw as hard as possible on every play. Finally, pitchers throw a lot more. 140 pitches or so per game in total, and 162 games per season. The NFL record is 70 throws, and the average is probably in the 30’s. With only 17 games in a season, they throw a lot less.
Pitchers physically cant throw more then 100ish pitches in a 5 day period. Their arms wear out. They lose velocity and spin. If a pitcher could throw every day, then teams would just use 1, but they can’t.
The average number of pitches thrown in a 9-inning baseball game is around 150, give or take. The number of pass attempts in a NFL game is tops out at around 40.
The average speed of an NFL pass is around 40-50 mph. The average pitch speed in major league baseball is around 80-90 miles per hour.
So we’re talking about roughly four times as many throws, thrown not quite twice as fast. Now it’s true that pitchers aren’t scrambling, running, and getting tackled in normal play, but the pressure put on their throwing arm is still huge. And in baseball, the pitcher’s throws are what directly influence scoring opportunities. In football, the quarterback doesn’t *have* to throw the ball every time, and can let the backs run the ball. So it’s much worse for the pitcher’s arm to be tired than it is for the QB’s arm to be tired.
Pitching is, at its heart, a one-on-one matchup. Pitcher vs batter. It’s a series of one-on-one matchups, batter after batter. You can swap out pitchers without disrupting your entire game plan. Also the salary structure is different in MLB. You can basically spend as much money as you want on your team’s roster, and get as many great players as you want.
In the NFL, being a QB means running the whole offense. You have to be in sync with the rest of the team. It isn’t a bunch of one-on-one matchups, it’s having the same timing as your receivers and running backs. Offenses get built around quarterbacks. Also, star QBs are hard to find. There aren’t enough great ones to go around. Even the “crappy” starting QBs are in fact, really good players. However, there’s a drop off. If you are the 25th best QB in the world, you’re going to be a starter in the NFL. But people are also going to scream about how much you suck. And with the NFL salary structure, nobody can afford to have two “good” quarterbacks. If the backup was as good as the first string guy, he wouldn’t be your backup. He’d go play for some other team and replace their starter.
All the other comments are missing a major difference between baseball and football. Baseball teams play around 5 games a week. Football plays 1 game a week. That means that there is significantly more time to rest between football games than there is between baseball games. If baseball only played 1 game a week, every team would only have 1 starting pitcher.
NFL quarterbacks aren’t throwing as hard as possible, or straining by putting odd spins on their throws. And they’re throwing the ball only 30-40 times per game max, many of those soft/short passes. And they’re only playing one game per week. MLB pitchers tire from throwing so hard so many times, and also batters seeing them repeatedly gives the batters an advantage in subsequent at-bats, while there is no such benefit to defense over course of NFL game.
I always thought it might be a good idea to get rid of the idea of a starting QB who is a franchise player and just have 3 QBs who you can switch out throughout the game. This could make it a lot more interesting, IMHO.
I also think they should get rid of instant replay, punting, and plastic helmets, so I have some unorthodox opinions on football I guess.
Simple math for starters.
A baseball starter can throw up to 100 pitches per game. A football player throws at most 50 passes a game.
After that it’s physical exertion/physics. A baseball pitcher is trying to throw a tiny ball as hard as they possibly can. Throwing a football by comparison is easier due to the shape and throwing motion. Also you are not trying to throw a football as far as you can every play. Many of the passes a QB makes are short passes which require little effort.
Strength of the throw – pitchers put a lot of stress on their arms and typically always throw hard. This hurts joints faster.
Number of throws – many more throws per game in baseball
Frequency of games – baseball games occur about 4-5x as much as football
Deception – pitching is a highly specific activity with quite a few rules around it. To be competitive, it’s often advantageous to have people with different throwing styles to keep batters guessing. Lefty vs Righty is the most obvious. In football, a QB fills a lot of rolls that often doesn’t even involve throwing. They fill more of a leadership position on the team and it’s not just about how fast/accurate they throw, somewhat contrary to baseball…
So with 2-3x the throws per game and 4-5x more games with throws being delivered with much more force in a more specialized, but demanding role, multiple pitchers are needed. Sometimes this is just strategy (like switching to a middle reliever for an inning or even less), but eventually it is absolutely needed. Pitchers back in the day used to commonly throw complete games and rack up easily 100+ pitches a night. I think they realized this is not only dangerous for the pitcher, but not advantageous assuming you can keep a few more pitchers on your roster
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