Omar Raja asks whether the NFL should borrow soccer's clock
A Hot Take Hotline caller wants fewer stoppages, while viewers point to the late-game drama those pauses make possible.
Omar Raja - ESPN
Story of Why this story? The video opened at a pace of 90,441 views a day, 14 times a normal first day on this channel (6,677).
Should The NFL Clock Never Stop?
Omar Raja gives this caller a chance to persuade him. "I don't hate this, but I need you to give me a good explanation," he says after hearing a proposal to keep the NFL game clock running, soccer-style.
The pitch comes from ChiTownNick on Raja's Hot Take Hotline: football takes too long because the clock keeps stopping. In "Should The NFL Clock Never Stop?", the caller proposes letting it run through incomplete passes and out-of-bounds plays, with exceptions for injuries, reviews and quarter endings. He argues that trailing teams would have to move quickly rather than lean on clock-stopping plays.
The Short reached about 50,000 views in nine hours, already well beyond the channel's usual full-day audience for the format. Its comment section also exceeded a typical first day's activity by more than tenfold.
Viewers are picking apart what the change would mean for a comeback. Several bring up the two-minute drill and the tactical importance of stopping the clock. Others separate the pauses from the commercials: their objection is to watching another ad, not necessarily to watching players reset between snaps. One suggests a compromise, keeping the clock moving after incompletions only in certain quarters.
Raja's other fast-starting uploads put NFL camera angles and bad-weather games up for discussion, too. His hotline is giving viewers several specific parts of football to reconsider, not just its running time.
Published on Trari
Where next?
What viewers say
Clock management is an important part of the game
@BrianWhitaker83See it on YouTubeI just simply hate the ads. I would literally rather watch our players stand around when the clock stops instead of watching ads after every 2 minutes
@Theguy5586See it on YouTubethat gets rid of every two minute drill situation. it would be absurdly difficult to succeed during a two minute drill if the clock never stopped without a timeout
@Hyvle12See it on YouTube
3 more comments
The problem is that players will be extremely tired and have an increased chance of getting hurt because of constant impact and sprinting for an hour. Also when the clock stops at the end of the game with 1 second to either win or lose it makes for some of the most exciting moments in football
@WyattRoll-gs2ixSee it on YouTubeMaybe lIke keep the clock running on a incompletion if it’s the first or third quarter that’s slightly logical but apart from that
@p-ruthless9005See it on YouTubeI’m down but I would say give each team 4 timeouts
@yomama7195See it on YouTube
Public comments from the video's page on YouTube
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- Channel
- Omar Raja - ESPN
- Subscribers
- 14,100,000
- Channel views, last 7 days
- 4,245,555
- Channel views, pace per day
- 1,635,709 (on a normal day: 277,189)
- Video published
- October 22, 2026
- Video views so far
- 50,113 (less than a day online)
- Video views, pace per day
- 90,441
The numbers
The clock proposal moved well beyond Omar Raja's usual Short audience before its first full day. His camera-angle and bad-weather questions also drew unusually fast starts.
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