We use to do the same thing in soccer. We would rotate people through the goalie position.
I think a “mercy rule” would be a worse idea, from the standpoint of preventing humiliation of the losing team, than a cutoff rule or no rule at all. Here’s a hypothetical: Team A, going into a game with Team B, whom they know to be vastly inferior, makes it a point of pride and/or gloating to try to get the game ended as quickly as possible by the “mercy rule.” Maybe they know that Team C, last Friday, put away Team B halfway through the third quarter and wants to one-up them by ending it before the half. I think the “mercy rule” would actually end up **encouraging ** teams to run up the score by any means necessary.
I didn’t play football, but I played soccer and was on some of the worse teams. The club I played for is one of the best in the country, and while I didn’t suck I played on the “b” team. We’d often play the “A” team, and the coach would put stipulations on how they could score, like the other team had to complete 10 passes in a row before they could score. I’ve also played with no stipulations. Both were embarassing. The kids aren’t stupid, they know that they’re outmatched. The absolutely only difference is that it’s not so embarassing telling your friends that you lost 4-0 rather than 11-0 if you can leave out that all 4 goals in the former game were scored off of bicycle kicks using the kids weak foot from half-field.
That’s actually an excellent point, and it reinforces one of my own personal axioms: There is no rule that can ever stop someone who is determined to be an asshole.
Agreed. That’s why it’s so cool that the only rule on the SDMB is “Don’t be a jerk,” and all the other rules (no flaming, no lying, etc.) are just corollaries to the central rule.
It is absolutely a rule. If you score with no time left in regulation, you are required to attempt a try, regardless of the score. You can elect to either kick for 1 or try for 2, but you have to do something.
It does not happen in overtime because that is a sudden death format, which is distinctly different from the rules in regulation.
As for an example that you might remember, a couple years back the Saints (IIRC) were down by 7 with a mile to go and virtually no time left on the clock. They did a crazy “Trombone Player” type play with a ton of laterals that by some miracle ended up scoring a touchdown. No time was left on the clock, but since it was not overtime, the try was mandatory. Good thing for them, as they were still down a point.
They, of course, missed the extra point and lost the game. Possibly the most heartbreaking and funniest loss I’ve ever seen.