Sure, no one likes a bad case of indigestion because it hurts like hell and can be a little scary if you've never experienced the tightness in the chest and the shooting pain down your left arm, but let's face facts: it's rarely fatal. Unfortunately, that's just what the NFL wants in the playoffs this coming season: an overtime rule that's rarely fatal.
I figure "sudden death" was too violent a concept for a league that seems destined to become a "two hands below the waist" touch football league. Whatever. Let's take a look at the rule change that has a lot of people, yours truly included, scratching their collective heads.
Everyone knows how OT in the NFL works. There's a coin toss, the team that receives the kickoff marches down the field and kicks a field goal, and we all go home 3 minutes later, unless of course the game is on CBS, which goes to commercial break after every play for some reason. Anyway, this scenario, in large part, is what prompted this rule change. Seems that since 1994 34% of the teams that won the coin toss won the game on their first possession, and a full 60% of coin-toss winners were the eventual winner.
28 out of 32 owners thought those statistics reflected something unfair, and decided to take one step closer to becoming a coed soccer league where everyone gets a trophy just for coming out to play. The change: If you win the coin toss and kick a field goal on your first possession, then you have to kick the ball to the other team to see what they can do with it. Lame if you ask me. Anyway, if they tie the score, then another coin toss happens and the old sudden death rules are back in effect. First team to score goes home happy. However, if the second team scores a touchdown, then the opening field goal simply wasn't enough, game over, you lost by three.
There is a caveat to this new rule, however. If the team that wins the OT coin toss marches down the field on their opening drive and scores a touchdown, then it's good night Irene and the team whose kicker was the only person to even touch the ball is quite upset, we'll hear about it later on SportsCenter.
There could be a minor silver lining here as it could spark a change in approach to how teams play overtime. Traditionally, teams cautiously move the ball down the field, getting closer and closer to their kicker's field goal range. Now, however, we could see teams open their playbooks and go for the jugular by scoring a touchdown. That is the one sure way to make certain the game is over and decided in your favor.
On the other side of that coin, if you will, is that this will only happen in the playoffs, and which head coach wants to go home playing the role of Dog with Fleas because he opted for a touchdown and came up short? Believe it or not, there are few brave warriors in the NFL coaching ranks.
So, why only playoff games? Truth be told I think the way the Vikings lost to the Saints in overtime in the NFC Championship game had a lot to do with it. The Vikings never saw the ball in the extra period. As a diehard Vikings fan I'm still feeling the sting of that loss. However, they had ample opportunity to get the job done in regulation, and it seems that Vikings' ownership agrees, as they, the Buffalo Bills, Cincinnati Bengals, and Baltimore Ravens, who voted against the change.
Whatever. I figure if you weren't tough enough to win it in regulation, only to turn around and lose it in overtime because you called heads and it landed tails, then boo hoo. Suck it up. When your offense and your defense take care of business, there's no such thing as overtime. You win it in regulation, you go home a winner, and you prepare to ruin next Sunday for some other team who's probably eyeballing OT, where a little luck can still go a long way.
I've done my share of writing, as a sports columnist, a freelancer and blogger. I've tried my hand at everything from writing the great American novel to scribing the minutes of monthly board meetings. Desperate times call for desperate measures, eh?
One day I'll get my big break... Maybe not. But at least, after all is said and done, I'll get to say that I've spent an entire career, an entire lifetime, writing, breathing, and living sports. And isn't that the American dream? Check out my blog, Sports Action Today, and add me on Facebook if you want a friend who won't shut up about sports!
