NFL Rule Book needs to be updated
They should, because, I don’t know about you but, I’m sick and tired of coin tosses deciding the outcome of an NFL game.
A standard NFL game consists of four quarters each with 15 minutes. The clock stops after certain plays. If an NFL game is tied after four quarters, the teams play an additional period called overtime game lasting up to 15 minutes.
NFL overtime rules say that in an NFL overtime game, the first team that scores wins, even if the other team does not get a possession. This is known as the sudden death. On the other hand, if neither team scores during the overtime, then the game is considered as a tie. In an NFL playoff game, additional overtime periods are played, as needed, to determine a winner.
The sudden death overtime rules call for a 15 minute period to follow the end of regulation. The first team to score wins. During the regular season, if after the end of the overtime period, no team scores, the game is recorded as a tie.
Playoff games will continue with multiple overtime periods until somebody does end up scoring. At the end of regulation time the referee will immediately toss a coin at the center of the field in accordance with the rules pertaining to the usual pregame toss. Unfortunately, the key to the game often rests on the flip of the coin.
There has been a public clamor to change the rules of the overtime for the longest time because of the problems the teams face. Some of the problems with the current system include; only three, or in rare cases, two points are required to win the game and the team that loses the toss, may never even touch it in the overtime period.
The team who wins the coin toss can elect to receive or kick away the ball. The teams that elect to receive usually go on to win, but not always. According to NFL stats, 60 percent of the games are won by the team that wins the toss, a very decisive advantage.
The NFL should seriously consider other options that would make overtime more fair and more competitive in the coming 2010 NFL football season.
Proposals for change are numerous, but proponents for change cannot agree on how it should be done. There are some who suggest the adoption of NCAA rules, which gives each opponent a chance at the ball at the 40 yard line, with the team scoring the most, winning. There are others who want to play a full 15 minute quarter for extra periods, removing the sudden death nature of OT.
According to Caroll Troscair, ”A better test of the teams may have been to give them a normal time out, similar to what they have between the third and fourth periods, then resume the game wherever it had stopped at the end of regulation.”
The major hurdle is the league itself refusing to adopt new rules. Their primary concern seems to be with television time for extended games.
They know that no matter what they throw at the viewing public, we’ll gonna eat it up anyway.
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Dallas Cowboys 12-1
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