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Should the NFL overtime rule be changed? Yes, it sure should. It isn't fair that one team will not have a chance to even the score and maybe win the game. What was owners thinking when they came up with this one? Must have been a lot of beverage flowing and someone "dropped the ball." Even in Pee Wee football, there is a fair method to decide games ending in a tie. Why can't the NFL do the same?

In the NFL, I think the winner of the coin toss almost always wins the game. I watched the Chiefs and Dallas play to a tie. When Dallas won the coin toss, I told friends the Chiefs would lose because they wouldn't get a chance to score again. I was the right, they couldn't get into field goal range, Dallas drove down the field, scored, game over.

One fair way to settle a tie would be for each team to start at mid field. If they score a touchdown or field goal, the other team starts at mid field and attempts to do the same. If they can't score the game is over. Both teams had a fair chance to win the game in overtime. Where is the excitement? It forces to the other team to either tie or win with a touch down or field goal. The game clock could start at ten minutes. All the rules of regular play are still used. Of course this method would eliminate the excitement of the kick off going coast to coast. But how exciting if the QB drops back and hits a T.D on the first play. the pressure would will be on the other team.

Another way the settle the tie. Just play a full 15 minute quarter. At the end of the quarter the team who has the most points, s always, wins the game. If it is still tied, play one more quarter. If it's still a tie, the game goes into the books as a tie game, in double overtime. This would gives fans something to scowl about for a year, "what if we only did this or that." Something to feud about, like the Royals beating St. Louis in the World Series. Cardinal fans, I know, still fume about that one.

The advantage the the last method is, the possibility of the kick off return, the owners can gian some extra revenue from food sales by keeping fans in the seats for another quarter or two. The way the overtime is done now, they might as well flip a coin, "Heads you win, tails you loose."

Learn more about this author, Charles W Straw.
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