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 The NFL's Competition Committee will propose a change to its overtime format that owners will consider when they gather in Orlando, Fla., for the NFL Annual Meeting beginning Sunday.
Before you say, "FINALLY," understand that the proposed format would only apply to the post-season.
Under the proposal, if the team that wins the toss proceeds to score a field goal on its first drive, the other team would get the ball. And if that team also scores a field goal, the present sudden-death format would then be in place. However, if the team that wins the toss drives for a touchdown, the game is over.
Knowing that owners have had a long history of opposing any alterations to overtime rule changes the members of the Competition Committee will try to make their case more compelling this time around by pointing out that, from 1974 to 1993, there was literally a 50-50 split between teams that won games after winning and losing the coin toss, but since then, OT victories have gone to clubs that win the toss 59.8 percent of the time, and to those that lose the toss 38.5 percent (note to those doing that math: the missing 1.7 percent are games that ended in a tie).
I'm not going to comment much until after they vote other than to say that the proposed change they are voting on is simply not rational. This would be like emergency room doctors treating a trauma patient that had two legs severed in an accident by attaching the left leg back but discarding the right leg even though they had the opportunity to attach it, simply because the option was too reasonable.
If you think that something is problematic so much that you are going to attempt to change the rule, why not fix the entire problem?
We've had some very interesting dialogue on this site with some legitimate, well thought out solutions to this problem. If you haven't seen them yet, check these two posts.
Also, we have a poll in our right side bar regarding this issue with some very interesting results. Please vote and see if your thoughts are in line with other readers. - Mike Cardano
Mike is the founder of the Around the Horn Baseball Blog and the Extra Point Football Blog.
For NCAA player profiles and complete coverage of this Year's NFL Draft, visit our NFL Draft Prospects Home Page with new profiles being added each week.
If you haven't voted in our polls on the site yet please do so. We are trying to get a feel for how our readers are looking at Football so we can write about things they want to hear. The poll questions are:
"Do you think the NCAA should have a Playoff to determine the National Champion rather than the BCS / Bowl System?"
and
"Should the NFL adopt the NCAA method of Overtime or continue to flip a coin for possession and have sudden death?"
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