<Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This article needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (January 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> <P> In the National Football League (NFL), the two - minute warning is given when two minutes of game time remain on the game clock in each half of a game, i.e. near the end of the second and fourth quarters . The suspension of play is two minutes long, the same as the short two - minute intermissions between quarters within each half . There is an additional two - minute warning in the rare event only two minutes remain in an overtime period . However, in the postseason, where games continue indefinitely if there is no score, there is no two - minute warning in the first overtime, but if the second overtime, or any subsequent even overtime, is still tied with two minutes remaining (which has never happened), there will be a two - minute warning . If the football is in play when the clock reaches 2: 00, the two - minute warning is called immediately after the play concludes, when the ball is declared dead . The two - minute warning stops the game clock in all cases . </P> <P> The origins are from the early years in the NFL when the official game time was kept by a member of the officiating crew, with the stadium clock being unofficial . Its purpose was a checkpoint to ensure that the teams knew how much time remained in the game . In the early 1960's the upstart American Football League made the stadium clock the official game time, a change followed later in the decade by the NFL . By then, television was an important factor in professional football, so the two - minute warning was retained as a commercial break and to serve as "tension building" time, and thus has become an important part of the game's flow . </P> <P> In addition to those practical purposes, gradually, some rules have evolved that are unique to the final two minutes of each half and overtime . There is no special event at the ends of the first and third quarters, aside from swapping end zones, so there is no two - minute warning then, only at the halves, except as implemented in Pro Bowls from 2014 to 2016 . </P>

When did the nfl start the 2 minute warning