by Jeffrey Schaffer

Created on: September 13, 2009

The sudden-death overtime rule currently used by the NFL is one of the best ways to resolve overtime because of its simplicity, quickness, and integrity.

The normal complaint over the rule is the ability for a team to win the coin toss, drive down the field, and kick a field goal without the other team getting an offensive possession. While this at first often seems unfair, it fails to take in account the purpose of overtime in the first place. Two teams fight it out for sixty minutes in order to win. People do not complain that it is not fair,even if the winner is determined by a field goal with no time remaining.The very thrill of the fourth quarter is the finality of it all; watching a great quarterback drive down with a minute left is a thing of beauty.

With this in mind, we should remember that overtime is meant to finish the game quickly. A sudden-death format fits the feel of professional football with its no-quarter manner. With high school and college football a more flexible rule is acceptable because the players are amateurs. The NFL is composed of professionals being payed hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars; such players can be expected to follow a stricter set of rules.

We can then see the advantages of the sudden-death rule:

1. Simplicity

The sudden-death rule allows for an straightforward means of settling a game. No need for possession or scoring rules, it simply allows the players to play and determine the game. Nobody is held to a separate set of expectations, the players know this going into overtime and are responsible for the results.

2. Quickness

The main point of overtime is to avoid ties; while an overtime loss is disappointing, a tie is even more frustrating. The currant rule allows for games to be ended quickly with ties being rare. Ties would be far more common if extra possessions or scoring were allowed.

3. Integrity

Under the current rules, the players still have to play football in overtime. Defense and Special Teams are equal parts of the teams; if they cannot step up with the game on the line, then they have themselves to blame. The game of football is retain entirely and teams have to win with their whole team.

While no system is perfect, the current sudden-death overtime rule is one of the simplest and best. Attempting to alter the rules to allow for "fairness" would create a convoluted system that would result in either more ties, or multiple overtimes which would diminish the value of the forth quarter itself. The NFL is for professionals, they must act as such and do what is needed of them.

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