Plaschke is latest to rail against NFL Overtime rule

Fuck it. No overtime then. EVERYONE GETS ICE CREAM!

 

That's what I'm talking about!

 

only way a team should be able to win on OT first possession is with a TD

 

The reference to baseball early in the thread made me think. The person who said football is not set up like baseball, where you're going to get your turn on offense, was on the money. A football team is not guaranteed a single possession.

Onside kick. Muffed punt. Muffed kickoff. It would never happen, but theoretically, a team could go an entire game and not have an offensive possession. No rule I know of guarantees any possessions. You have to earn them.

 

If you're going to guarantee each team two possessions, fine, but just play regular football. Don't go the college route and pick an arbitrary yard line to start each possession. Go with: Team A scores, then kicks off to the other team, which must tie or win. After that, sudden death.

HOWEVER ...

Football is a game of offense, defense and special teams. In the NFC championship, the Saints' regular kick returner was hurt and Pierre Thomas took his place. The Vikings lost the coin flip and kicked off, and Thomas returned it to the freakin' 39-yard line. Don't want to lose on the first possession? You can't let that happen. ... On the Saints' first set of downs, the Vikings commit a defensive holding penalty on 3rd and 6. Stop them there, and you probably get the ball back via punt.

Teams don't score on every possession, and the way the Vikings' defense played in the second half of that game, you might think that they had a good shot at getting the ball back. But they put themselves in that position by not making stops at key times. The idea that every NFL team suddenly becomes an offensive juggernaut when they win the coin flip is ridiculous. Don't let them return the kickoff 40 yards. Don't extend their drive with penalties.

Just because Brett Favre didn't get back on the field doesn't mean the rules weren't fair. It's the team's responsibility -- not the rules' -- to get the ball back in his hands.

 

The majority of possesions in football do not end up as scores.

Play defense.

Technically in hockey you could win the faceoff and go down and score withou the other team touching the puck.

Play defense.

 

Why?
I have yet to hear a legitimate argument why this makes a bit of sense.

 

In the old Arena League OT, each team got a possession, after which sudden death ensued.

Which of course led to teams winning the flip, scoring a TD and then kicking onside. If they recover, ballgame. If not, the other teams get a short field to tie, and play on. Which I didn't care for.

 

If you recover an onside kick, the other team never got possession.

I have a novel suggestion:

Leave the fucking OT rules alone. They work.