That’s the most logical solution if you insist on creating special rules and still having sudden death. I think I’ll be satisfied with that rule. Based on the way that quoted part is worded I’m not completely clear on what happens if the team that starts with the ball punts and the subsequent possession leads to a FG by the kicking team. Do they still need to win by 6? Does “first possession” mean that it’s the overall first possession or the first by each team? What if the kicking team kicks and onside kick and recovers it or the receiving team muffs a kick, does the recovering team have to win by 6?
There’s a lot of clarity that much be reached for me to entirely sign off on it.
I’m quite a bit perplexed why there’s never any discussion of simply eliminating the overtime coin flip. To my view the biggest complaint is that the team that wins the flip gets a huge advantage simply by random chance. The issues isn’t so much the advantage as it is the random chance. Teams get homefield advantage and bye weeks, so giving a team an advantage has never been a issue before.
I’ve always thought that determining overtime based on something other than chance and/or declaring who gets possession in overtime at the start of the game would eliminate any complaints of unfairness. If you know for 60 minutes that a tie will lead to the other team getting the ball then you can adjust accordingly and choose to go for the win at the end of regulation when possible.
I think a better rule would be to have the coin flip at the start of the game determine both initial possession as well as overtime possession during the regular season and then have the home team get the ball at the start of overtime in every playoff game. I could be convinced that the home field rule should apply in the regular season too. In contrast you could flip the idea around and give the visiting team possession in overtime under the presumption that by overcoming the disadvantage of being a road team to draw a tie you’ve earned the advantage in overtime.
In other NFL administrative news the NFL will be moving the Umpires to the offensive backfield in the upcoming season for safety reasons.
It’ll be interesting. I worry that the Umpires will be much worse at their jobs as a result of this change and that many more illegal hits, facemasks and holds will go unnoticed without having someone in the middle. The pre-snap isn’t that big an issue for me, I think offsides and false starts will still be notable. I wonder if this will lead to more inaccurate spots on tackles and if placing the ball prior to the snap in hurry-up situations will suffer.
Personally I think I’d have preferred to equip the Umps with helmets and forced them to get into better shape and weeded out of the old and overweight guys that tend to be the one getting run over.
It is my understanding that the umpire doesn’t use his own view of ball placement when spotting the ball, even if he has a good view. The head linesman, line judge, side judge or field judge (the guys on the sidelines) do that and the umpire puts it down based on them.
If the owners keep OT as it is, I’m pretty okay with that. I do not want to adopt anything resembling the collegiate OT format though.
Why can’t they just add some time, like say a 10 minute extra period, and if there’s no tiebreak by the end of that then just revert to sudden death?
I fear this whole “team x will get the ball back in overtime of only playoff games if team y only manages a FG as opposed to a TD” will just be too much wrangling.
The OT proposal makes no sense to me. If you were going to apply it to all OTs - maybe. But they’re specifically looking at playoff OTs, which are rare enough that you don’t really have the pressure to do the “ok let’s finish this soon” sudden death thing as much. So if you’re only changing the rules for OT, just add an extra period (maybe not a full 15 minutes).
I guess the risk there would be is that since playoff games can’t end in a tie, you could end up with a ridiculously long game. Eh, I’d prefer that to special-case overtime rules for what’s already a weird system.
I’d keep the OT rule the way it is, or adopt the college system for the NFL, but I’d absolutely insist on using the same rules for regular season and playoff games. Too much confusion otherwise, and what do you do with a late season game where one team has a “win and in” scenario? From their perspective, that game IS a playoff game.
Agreed that they haven’t thought this through very well.
Yep, I came to this same idea a couple years ago. (Or maybe it was last year.) It’s really the most elegant solution there is.
Note that random isn’t unfair. Quite the contrary, random is the fairest method there is, and by a huge margin. It really seems bizarre to me that the pinnacle of fairness in all of Western society – the coin flip – is deemed “unfair” by so many football fans. (You personally didn’t state this; in fact you stated the opposite. This is jumping on the bandwagon to, as you describe, “eliminate any complaints of unfairness.”)
I can’t stress enough that they’re not eliminating any unfairness with this rule proposal. The way it is now, the team that receives the ball has a fan-perceived advantage. (That didn’t exist in the 2009 season, by the way.) Under this new proposal, the receiving team will have an actual advantage of getting a whole extra down on their first drive if the other team scored a field goal. Punting is an automatic loss, so you get to always go for it on 4th without question, meaning you can plan and strategize (call plays) completely differently.
It really strikes me as odd that fans think introducing a non-football unfair advantage is an improvement over just playing defense. Is defense really that distasteful?
Speaking of distasteful, the owner of the New York Football Giants (John Mara) has actually come out publicly supporting this change. Luckily there is almost no chance it will pass.
Some of Omni’s questions were answered. For example, if you muff the opening kickoff that still counts as your first possession for the purposes of this rule. Also, if the first team punts, the second team can win with a field goal.
A surprise onside could be an interesting question, and is not specifically addressed. This rule change theoretically makes them more reasonable to try them, but then again that would take some major balls in a playoff game.
It looks like the talk of trading McNabb is heating up. Speculation was abound that the Rams had made an offer (which they vehemently denied. A great strategy guys. Starting a season with the likes of Boller and A.J. Feeley as your QBs is obviously the right way to improve), but now the whisperings are about the Raiders, Jaguars, and Bills. Some reports are saying these teams would be amenable to trading their first, but I’m not sure how that could be anything other than wild speculation. McNabb would have to sign an extension, so he has a makeshift no-trade clause, which some have said rules out Oakland.
I didn’t think anything would happen a couple weeks ago. Suddenly it’s starting to look like a McNabb trade is likely. It’s going to be a huge benefit to the Eagles if they can actually get three teams to start a bidding war and drive up the price a little bit. Starting to get real interesting!
Yeah, if Kolb is the next Aaron Rodgers and they can deal McNabb for a first rounder, they could be sitting pretty for the next several years at a bare minimum.
Thing is, that’s mighty big if there, and McNabb can still win you games now and for a few more years, especially now that it seems the Eagles actually have some decent receivers for a change.
Not that the Rams have a history of intelligence in their handling of player personnel, but it makes perfect sense to me for them to deny that they have any interest in McNabb, or Vick, or whomever. They’re sitting with the first pick of the draft, and if they do sign McNabb (or even indicate they are actively pursuing him), the trade value of their #1 pick goes down. Any team that wants to get Bradford before the Skins at 4 (which is my guess he’ll go if the Rams don’t take him) might be making inquiries from the Rams, who already have an interest in him. If the Rams sign McNabb, teams won’t have to worry about the Rams grabbing Bradford and the list of their potential suitors decreases.
Now is the time of subtle inquiries, non-binding intimations, and, above all else, misinformation. The sheer amount of bullshit being spewed by NFL teams (whether through official or “anonymous sources”) from here on out is going to be insane.
If I’m the Rams I trade for McNabb and draft Bradford. Let McNabb run the team for 2 years and let Bradford study under him and develop slowly. McNabb has injury history so odds are good that Bradford will get some reps in the meantime.
The biggest obstacle, aside from asinine trade demands from the Eagles, will be McNabb’s contract demands. He’s due $11M+ for the final year of his deal and any trade involving a high draft pick is going to require an extension to be agreed upon. If he’ll take a 2 year extension for fair money, locking him down for the next 3 years in St. Louis and perhaps making him a trading chip in 2013 if he holds up ala Warner and Favre when Bradford would be ready to go.
Of course McNabb might very well resist another Kolb-like situation in St. Louis but considering that he’s quite a bit older now it’s perhaps more palatable.
Supposedly the Bears are shopping Alex Brown. This makes little sense. Brown is a class act and has been a steady presence on the line for that defense. He’s not a difference maker and he’s more of a grinder than an explosive player but he’s always in the right place and makes all the plays he’s asked to. For my money he sounds like the perfect compliment to Julius Peppers.
The defense wasn’t very good the last few seasons and Brown had a key role in that so perhaps it’s foolish to fret too much over losing a guy from that squad, especially if the trade recoups some value (3rd round draft pick maybe?), but it’s not like the Bears have any clear options to replace him. If they move him they better be damn sure that Idonije, Melton or Gilbert can step up on 1st and 2nd down. Presumably Anderson will be the 3rd down pass rush specialist.
I hope this doesn’t boil down to a cost cutting move. Brown makes about $5M a year so trading him for a draft pick would offset a nice chunk of that Peppers money. Bad strategy in an uncapped year but one that would be very McCaskey-like.
On Friday’s Jim Rome Is Burning he had on Antonio Pierce, who said he’d had some feelers for a few teams, most notably the Rams. Whether he starts or not, the Rams should sign him in a heartbeat. Even as a player coach he’d be an asset for a total scrub.
I’d personally like to see him reunite with Spagnuolo just because I like both of them.
Some rumors have the Eagles making a swap with the Raiders for Nnamdi Asomugha (yes I did have to look that up). I really doubt this happens, but I do want to ask, is Nnamdi even good any more? I know a couple seasons ago everyone was saying how “that Ass-uh, um… Ass-uh-mug-huh guy is really good!” but, is he still? I felt like he slipped a lot last year when I had the chance to watch him play. It seemed like teams threw to his side of the field a lot more, and that he didn’t often make plays. I know he was nursing a bad hand or wrist or something, but still. Anyone have any better idea about him?
He doesn’t get a lot of elite CB stats like INT’s and passes defended like the other big names out there like Revis, Johnathon Joseph, Leon Hall, etc. The argument I hear against that is that “teams just don’t throw his way”.
Whether or not that’s true, I don’t know. I never catch Raiders games.
NFL Star Joey Porter Arrested for Assaulting Cop
Posted Mar 27th 2010 4:59PM by TMZ Staff
Arizona Cardinals
linebacker Joey Porter was arrested outside a Taco Bell this morning after officials say Porter put his hands on a cop.
According to the California Highway Patrol, Joey was driving in a Taco Bell parking lot in Bakersfield – his home town – when a friend of Joey’s was was stopped by police.
According to officials, Porter pulled up near the action - too close apparently – because a CHP officer rolled over to his car, where he detected the smell of alcohol coming from Porter’s car.
Cops say the officer asked for Porter’s driver’s license, but he refused to hand it over. … instead, officials say, the 33-year-old tried to roll up his window.
Cops say the officer tried to reach in the car to manually unlock the car – and that’s when Porter “slapped” the officer’s hand away.
According to the CHP, the officer decided to grab Porter’s arm – and that’s when things got crazy. Porter allegedly got out of his car “in a confrontational manner.”
The officer claims he drew his pistol and ordered Porter to the ground, but he wouldn’t comply – though he did ultimately agree to place his hands behind his head.
Additional officers were called to the scene to aid in the arrest. Porter was eventually taken in to custody and booked at a nearby jail. He was eventually charged with 3 misdemeanors – DUI, resisting arrest and assault on a peace officer.
Porter recently signed a big fat contract with the Cardinals – reportedly worth $17.5 million for 3 years.