NFL Overtime Ideas for Competition Committee

Damn straight!!

 

Seconded.

There was a Jets-Bills game a couple years ago. The Bills scored something silly like 10 or 17 points in the fourth quarter to send the game into overtime.

The Jets win the coin toss, elect to receive and their return man took the kickoff back for a touchdown. Game over.

Now, if the Bills had a possession, there's no guarantee that they would have scored a touchdown. But it would have been interesting to see what they could have done had they had a possession.

 

The XFL-style kickoff worked great for the XFL, didn't it? Oh yeah, the two guys involved broke their collarbones on the first "kickoff" of the season.

 

I usually like tinkering with things and usually hate defending the status quo.

The NFL overtime rule is fine just the way it is. The overtime does one thing - it creates a winner in almost all regular season games. The tie this year that Philadelphia had was the rare exception. Allowing each team to have one possession would result in more ties and less drama.

As to the argument that it isn't fair - hey, you didn't win the game in regulation time. Deal with the consequences. Consider the effect of alternatives.

Put the ball on the 30 -- You are pretty much giving a team 3 points. NFL teams would play six defensive backs and give up runs but not a pass.

Put the ball at midfield - NFL teams would play very conservative, avoiding all sacks and the game would be played between the 35-yard lines.

The XFL style - Do you really think you could sell this to NFL owners who would put their players at risk? If you could, do you think you could sell this to coaches? If you could, the NFL Players' Association might act like a real union.

Have to win by at least four points - This would drag games out longer, and would probably generate cases of frostbite for players and fans in the northern states. It would also generate heart attacks of TV programers.

 

Anyone got any stats on the percent of games decided on the opening OT possession? Less than 50%, right? Maybe even well below.

Some other options to consider:

Rock, paper, scissors

Final Jeopardy where teams can wager their points

Tug of War

Duel at 20 paces with 3rd string quarterbacks (makes that position much more important going forward.)

 

Only by the team getting the opening kickoff on that opening possession.

 

Why do people get so worked up about ties? Who cares if it ends in a tie?

 

The moment someone separates a shoulder or suffers a concussion with a helmet-to-helmet collision going for the ball, that rule would be taken out.

 

Because it's a blatantly stupid idea to begin with.

 

And, as Rumple pointed out, the XFL had that rule and, to the shock of absolutely no one, players were hurt. The game is violent enough. Why implement a rule that will do nothing but create injuries?

 

Yep. Nothing wrong with a coin toss.

 

Because then everybody watching is pissed off.