Overtime Rules to Change

By Abbylynn S.

 

Flip a coin and call heads or tails. It's nothing special. Yet somehow this simple procedure held the fate of Super Bowls and innumerable other football games, causing waves of disappointment to fans all across the country.

          Overtime begins when two teams are tied at the end of regulation. The visiting team captain is given the task of calling the coinflip. This then leads to the team that won the coin flip to select if they want possession first or which side they want to defend. The teams then begin play. If the team that had the ball first scores a touchdown the game is over. Otherwise, the other team gets the ball, and there's a chance for sudden death.

            

          While including the postseason, there have been 163 overtime football games with the ongoing overtime rules since 2010. The record of the NFL of teams that have won the coin flip is 86 wins, 67 losses, and 10 ties, the percentage being around 52.8%. With the 11 post season games' record being 10 wins, 1 loss, and a percentage of 91%.

"Imagine if baseball were to decide a League Championship Series game that progressed to extra innings by awarding a spot in the World Series to a team that scored a run in the top half of the 10th — without allowing the team in the field a turn at bat," DeCourcy wrote. "That’s what the NFL just did." The coinflip affected Superbowl 51 in this way. The New England Patriots and the Atlanta Falcons were tied. The Patriots had won the coin flip and chose to get the ball first. The Falcons offense watched impotently as the Patriots beat their tattered defense who had been on the field for 40 minutes and 31 seconds. The Patriots won the game with the Falcons having no chance to counter.

This occurred again in the Buffalo Bills vs. Kansas City Chiefs divisional round in 2021. After back and forth, scoring 25 points in the last two minutes of regulation, the Kansas City Chiefs won the coin flip and drove down to end the game with a touchdown. Both offenses had played as if they would suffer eternal shame if they didn't win. During those last few minutes, the game could have gone either way. The outcome of the game was all because of the coinflip.

As the overtime rules have increasingly received criticism, the NFL teams have proposed new changes to these rules. The proposals would make the game more strategy-based than luck. The Baltimore Ravens proposed a revolutionary overtime rule change called the "Spot and Choose" where after a coinflip the winner decides whether they want to "Spot" or "Choose.” The team picks where to place or "spot" the ball, and the other chooses whether they want to play offense or defense. With this they proposed two different scenarios: one ten minute sudden death period, or one seven and a half minute period, playing until the clock runs out.

The NFL overtime rules have the chance to grow into something more; fans are ready for a change and more equal playing grounds. After all, why should the team who won 50-50 be declared as the champions?