NFL's overtime easy to fix
Sep 19, 2006, 4:43:19 AM by Jonathan Rand
Here’s the solution to the NFL’s problem of giving an unfair advantage to the team that wins the toss in overtime:
Play a mini-quarter, a 71/2-minute period, and if the score’s still tied, go to sudden death. If the score’s still tied after another 71/2-minutes, call it a tie, just as the NFL does now.
When the Chiefs and Broncos ended regulation tied 6-6, the only real suspense left was the coin toss. As the CBS announcers pointed out, since overtime rules were installed in 1974, the team receiving in overtime scored on its first possession 28.6 percent of the time. It’s a fair guess the edge is greater when the home team wins the toss.
In 391 overtime games since 1974 and prior to this season, the team winning the toss has won 52.7 percent of the time. The team losing the toss has won 43.2 percent of the time and the rest of the games have been ties. That’s not an outrageous edge for the team winning the toss, but it’s enough of an edge that the rules beg for tweaking.
In any overtime, the winner should be asked to achieve the same things it tried to do in regulation. In other words, you shouldn’t switch to an entirely different game.
In college football, teams play a traditional game for 60 minutes but if the score’s tied, they settle the issue by playing Arena football.
It’s not a bad idea to guarantee both teams a possession in NFL overtime. But they should have the pressure of the clock, just like in the rest of the game. The Broncos chewed up five minutes, 10 seconds before Jason Elam’s 39-yard field goal gave them a 9-6 victory. Were they playing half a quarter, the Chiefs would’ve had two minutes, 40 seconds to tie or win.
Granted, the Chiefs’ offense wouldn’t have had as much time as the Broncos. And an offense could control the ball for the entire 71/2 minutes of overtime. But a defense that can’t get an opposing offense off the field in that time doesn’t deserve to win, anyway.
The NFL’s sudden-death rules made much more sense before kickers became so accurate and kicking surfaces became so favorable. Nearly 70 precent of the overtime games are decided by field goals. A few decades ago, a 39-yard field goal was a challenge, especially late in the season when a field might resemble a rock pile. For Elam, a 39-yard kick is almost a gimme.
Also, where’s the drama in overtime when a team reaches field goal range and just runs off tackle to give the kicker a favorable spot? If the offense knew the other team would get the ball back, it would be forced to stay aggressive and go for the end zone.
It was interesting that announcers Phil Simms and Jim Nantz got into a lively debate over the merits of the overtime system during the Chiefs’ game. If sudden-death overtime really carried its intended suspense, the issue wouldn’t have even crossed their minds.
The thrill of overtime just isn’t what it was when Alan Ameche’s plunge gave the Baltimore Colts their historic victory over the New York Giants in the 1958 NFL championship game. The NFL’s current overtime is becoming obsolete and only marginally more dramatic than a tie. And a lot less fair.
