April 2, 2010: If I Ruled The (Sports) World: NFL Overtime Rules
I’m a bit late to this, but I wanted to weigh in on the NFL’s decision to change its overtime rules (for the playoffs).
The league changed its overtime rules for postseason games. Starting next season, if a team wins the coin toss and then kicks a field goal, the other team gets the ball. If that next series ends with another field goal, play will continue under the current sudden-death rules.
If the team winning the toss immediately scores a touchdown, however, the game is over.
I’ve always been for changing the NFL’s overtime rules. Like most people, I believe they gave a huge, arbitrary advantage to whoever won a random coin toss. But if the problem is that a coin toss has too much of an effect on the game, shouldn’t the most logical solution be to get rid of the coin toss?
Sure, winning the coin toss is less important, but it still is going to have an effect on who wins, and the lessened impact comes with the expense of making rules that were once simple into something confusing and byzantine. The point is that we want games to be decided by which team is better, not by who correctly guesses which side of a coin will land face-up. Why not just eliminate the coin flip and have who gets ball first be decided by something that involves skill?
You could make it anything. Have one or both kickers attempt a 50-yard field goal: whoever makes, it takes it, like in playground basketball. Or give the ball to whoever gained more yards during regulation (since a team that scored 17 points on 400 yards probably exhibited more skill than a team that scored 17 points on 200 yards).
But even better, why not just have a tip-off like in the NBA? Throw the ball up in the air and let the two highest jumping guys tried to come down with it. And if neither come down for it, then one of the most exciting scenarios in football (the mad-scramble-for-a-loose-ball) ensues. Who wouldn’t watch that?
As always, remember, these “If I Ruled The World” entries are supposed to be a little zany. Have a better idea? Tell me what you think.
Posted April 2, 2010
