Garbage time

During the garbage time of an already settled American football game, the previously full stadium is now half-full and the substitutes are on the field.

In sports, garbage time is the period toward the end of a timed sports competition that has become a blowout and the outcome has effectively already been decided. Typically during garbage time, the coaches of one or both teams will replace their best players with substitutes.[1] This serves to give these substitutes, who are usually less experienced or younger players, actual playing experience, as well as to protect the best players from the possibility of injury.[2]

  1. ^ Beech, Roland. "Coaching by the numbers" Archived 2007-01-14 at the Wayback Machine, nbcsports.com, October 31, 2006
  2. ^ Jackson, John. "Trash men: Rookies roll in garbage time, Chicago Sun-Times, December 25, 2006