I think the new rules should be tweaked a bit which means even if the team who gets the ball first scores a TD the other team should have a chance to match it.
if every overtime went at least 15 minutes the games would go on too long and players would get too tired
I like the rules as it is now. Wouldn’t want the NFL to go to the college style OT
if you give up a TD. you deserve to lose the game. too many casuals don’t appreciate defense
You can’t take luck out of the game entirely, anyway. So I’m fine with an element of pure luck, like a coin flip, having some effect on the outcome. I wouldn’t be OK with a single coin flip to directly determine the game, but there’s a difference between that and just deciding who gets the first chance that way.
That said, there’s something to be said for the bidding war idea (provided that both sides make their bids privately, before they know the opposing bid). If you’re confident that you can make a long drive, then prove it. If you’re confident that the other side can’t make a long drive, then make them prove it. It takes out the luck of the coin flip, and the bragaddacio sounds entertaining (which is, after all, the purpose of professional sports). Plus, you’d get the game theory aspect of trying to guess what your opponent will bid, so as to bid just a little bit longer than them: For instance, a team that’s strong on defense might pick an extremely short drive for themselves, in the hope that they can stop the other team’s long drive… but if the other team knows you’re going to do that, then they can pick a drive that’s nearly as short.
You could auction it openly, I think. Something like:
Auction starts with Away team getting first possession at their own 20.
Home team can elect to steal, starting at their own 15.
Away team can elect to steal, start at their own 10.
Home 5.
Away 4.
Home 3.
Away 2.
Home 1.
Possession is awarded whenever either team says “fine, you take it” or, if nobody does, home team gets the ball at their own 1.
The one thing to consider about another 15 minute quarter is that after playing 60 minutes, the players are very tired - almost to the point of exhaustion and I have heard that is when most injuries occur.
Now, I don’t know if that is true or not. Or whether it can be proven at all.
But, if it is true, then perhaps overtime should be significantly shorter.
I think there is another sport. Maybe hockey … where the attitude is. “We don’t like ties. So we will play a little longer to try and avoid a tie. But if the result is a tie, we will just live with that.”
Seems to me that may be the most humane approach.
Good post!
This is also what I have been saying in this thread. People saying “Let’em play until someone wins” would say something else if they had to be the one playing. Football is hard.
I’m a little surprised nobody has mentioned something equivalent to soccer’s penalty shootout - a field-goal kicking “contest” of some sort. For example, you toss a coin; the winner decides which team chooses the initial distance, and the other team chooses who kicks first. First successful FG wins. If the first kick is no good, the second is from the same distance; after that, move the ball 5 yards closer for each kick.
Bad idea, because of American football’s specialized positions. It’d mean that the game would be decided by the kickers, who are a relatively small portion of the regular game.
They did and it’s as horrible an idea as PKs are to end a soccer match. And any bidding ideas are awful too. This is not a poker game and ot games are already drawn out long enough.
So each team gets one possession like in College. Repeat until someone wins if post season. Regular season if tied at end of regulation then the game ends in a tie. Simple.
Simple, yes, but it still suffers from pretty much every other overtime procedure; the winner of the opening coin toss has an advantage. The only system I have seen that got around the coin toss is the XFL “race to the ball” method, and I don’t think the NFL wants to stoop to that.
Here’s an idea: if the score is not 0-0, then whoever didn’t score last (i.e the team that didn’t “tie the score as opposed to take the lead”) gets whatever “advantage” the coin toss winner would normally get; if the score is 0-0, then you might as well toss a coin.
Geez, if the score is 0-0, that should be the end of the game. Call it a tie and skip OT altogether if it comes to that. Has an NFL game ever ended scoreless after regulation (in the last 65 years)?
But if both teams are guaranteed at least one possession how does that give an advantage to the team that wins the toss? I may be missing something obvious here.
Because both teams are not guaranteed at least two possessions. If the teams are still tied after the first possession, then whoever won the coin toss will have an advantage.
And a bidding method wouldn’t drag out the game any further: You’d just have both coaches saying a number to an official. It’d hardly take any more time than a coin flip, and you could probably do it during a commercial break, with the announcers telling the result as the teams are going out onto the field.
- Giants and Lions.
ETA: There were many before that, it was the last.
Math is hard?
In system of ‘both teams guaranteed one possession, then sudden death if still tied’, then if both teams punt on their first possession, the team with the first possession has an advantage (any score wins immediately).
But, before that, the team with the second possession has the advantage. They know whether they need a field goal, a TD, or can afford to punt when they have their first possession. That’s a big big advantage when it gets to third and fourth down.
I think the benefits from the second possession outweigh the benefits from the third, so the coin toss winner should choose to kick off.
Here’s a wacky idea: one team starts with the ball, first score wins… but the coaches bid on starting field position.
“I’ll start at the 20”
“Ok, I’ll start at the 15”
“OK, I’ll start at the 8”
“OK, do it”
Might be most exciting as a simultaneous, secret auction. Both coaches right down a number on a piece of paper, then the ref reveals them both.
Not that wacky, as a large number of posts already have mentioned this proposal and variations on it, which are obviously better than what we currently have for both NFL and lower levels.
It would work best as a vocal auction replacing the coin toss, which is normally televised anyway. Whoever would be calling the coin toss, they’re the ones participating in the auction. The whole thing wouldn’t take much longer than showing the heads/tails to both sides and flipping the coin.