Yes

by Brian Pears

Created on: September 17, 2009

The NFL's overtime rule needs to be changed. To illustrate why, one only needs look at the problems arising from the way "football," as most of the rest of the world knows soccer, attempts to resolve games that end in a tie.

The most heated debate among the world's billion-plus soccer fans revolves around the way in which they settle games that cannot end in a tie, such as a tournament championship game. FIFA, the soccer world's governing body, handles the situation correctly after regulation time expires. They hold two additional fifteen minute periods, with a short break in between. Most importantly, they play the periods out in their entirety (that is, no American "sudden death," or "golden goal," as it is called in soccer.) Thus, the overtime periods end the same way the game itself does.

But when those third and fourth periods end, soccer reverts to a penalty shootout. This contrived solution involves each team taking at least five one-on-one goal scoring opportunities against the opposing goalie from a spot twelve yards from the goal line. If after five tries, the teams have scored the same number of penalties, the teams take alternating penalty shots until one misses and the other makes. Most fans rail against penalty kicks, claiming that they have little to do with how the game was played over the first 120 minutes.

Why the foray into a fringe sport in America in a discussion about the NFL overtime? Because it perfectly illustrates the inherent problem with the overtime rule as it stands today: it is contrived. It is unlike the regulation-time game itself, and for that reason, the NFL needs to revamp its rules.

The current overtime period is artificial because it takes away the strategy that makes a regulation-length game so fascinating. On a visceral level, football appears to be about brute strength, raw speed, and jaw-dropping athleticism. But if those were the only things that appealed to fans, they could get the same experience watching Olympic sports.

What makes football so compelling is that teams of eleven strong, fast, athletic men compete according to strategies that are painstakingly developed over many hours of preparation. They are led by professional coaches, who run exhaustive practices designed to perfect everything that gets played out on the field. These coaches can have a tremendous impact. Quite often, in fact, when two teams that appear to be relatively equal in terms of talent, fans note that the difference between the winner and the loser is due to coaching and preparation.

End of game strategies, such as two-minute drills, clock management, and special teams play, are an enormous part of any team's preparation. While every coach would love to win every game 50-0, they all understand that most games will be close until the end. They prepare extensively to execute with precision when precious few seconds remain on the clock.

What's more, those pressure situations at the end of games are what fans love the most. Fans may relish a blowout win for their favorite team, but the games they talk about for years on end are the ones that were undecided nearly until the final whistle. Often, these games become known, and are given mythical one-word names, solely by the play or plays that took place at the very end. "The Drive" (a 98-yard Denver Broncos drive in 1987 with 37 seconds left in regulation to defeat Cleveland,) "The Catch" (a 1981 San Francisco touchdown catch against Dallas with 51 seconds left,) and "The Music City Miracle" (a wild Tennessee Titans kickoff return with no time left to defeat Buffalo in 2000) are examples that even casual fans are familiar with.

Those qualities - the opportunity to execute under intense pressure and the incredible interest fans take in such situations - are exactly what are missing from an NFL overtime. Overtimes are nearly always a letdown. They take the excitement from the end of a game and let it fizzle.

The greatest cheer in overtime typically revolves around the coin flip, and it is this random event that most makes overtimes unnatural. From 2000-2007, roughly 60% of the teams that won the coin flip won the game, and in approximately half of those games, the team that lost the coin flip never got to touch the ball again. Keep in mind that the 60/40 result occurs in games that ended regulation tied, so one would certainly expect to see a split far closer to 50%.

The strategy that makes the ends of games exciting is gone. The team that wins the toss typically attempts to drive into field goal range, and once they do, they usually play far more conservatively. The team that is losing will also adjust defensively to the more conservative posture. It makes for uninteresting football, and that is magnified by the contrast with the excitement that typically preceded it.

The solution is to play an overtime period the same way the regular game is played. Sudden death should be eliminated, so that the extra time played at the end of a tied game - a situation that should be even more exciting for fans - has the same suspense as the regulation game itself did. Certainly, the more time that is played, the more that fatigue and injury could factor into the game, but that is where preparation, training, and strategy come in. The team that is better coached and better prepared will likely win as the game goes on, as it should be.

When the team that wins a 50-50 coin flip stands a far better than 50-50 chance of winning a tied football game, something is wrong. The solution is to make overtime function the way the rest of the game does.

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