The average NFL game lasts about 3 hours and 11 minutes, but has about 11 minutes of actual game play. The 60-minute game clock in football can run when the ball is not in play. That means much of game time is spent standing around, walking, huddling up before each play begins, etc.
The 11 minutes of action was calculated a few years ago by the Wall Street Journal. It actually averages out to between 11 and 14 minutes of play. (Counting from the snap of the football to when the play is whistled dead.)
An average game has more than 20 breaks containing over 100 commercials.
Its analysis found that an average NFL broadcast spent more time on replays (17 minutes) than live play. The majority of time (75 minutes) was spent watching players, coaches, and referees essentially wandering around the field.
An average play in the NFL lasts just four seconds and NFL teams average between 64 and120 plays per game.
If you take the highest paid star, Matthew Stafford, Detroit Lions and his 2017 salary of $27,000,000 and divide it by game minutes played per season of 16 games - 6 * 11= 176 minutes, $27 million divided by 176 minutes comes out to $153, 409.09 per minute of play - not bad. (Of course this presumes no playoff games for them, which is usually a safe assumption for the Lions.)
The hundreds of millions paid by advertisers to networks and the hundreds of millions paid by viewers to networks and the hundreds of millions paid to teams and players cannot be calculated according to minutes played as we and they are also paying for the rest of the twaddle, not just the game.
Incidentally,
Baseball: Per a 2013 WSJ study, Baseball games feature 17 minutes and 58 seconds of action.
Basketball: Since the clock only runs when the ball is in play, there is exactly 48 minutes of play time.
Soccer: Per the Soccerbythenumbers.com website 2011 study, between 57 and 65 minutes of ball-in-play action is seen on average in the major European pro leagues per game.
Hockey: Average play time is 60 minutes.