Journal leviramsey's Journal: Will the NFL change the OT rules next season? 8
Of late, there have been many overtime games in the world of professional football, perhaps a product of increasing parity in the NFL. Teams are winning the coin toss and marching down to kick a field goal to win the game. To have the outcome of a game, especially in the NFL, where the result of one game in the division can make or break a team's playoff hopes, seems absurd, and a growing number of voices are calling for reform.
The concept of overtime is a relatively recent development in football. The NFL did not establish sudden-death OT until the mid-1950s. It was not until decades after that that the NCAA implemented their own overtime system, which was very different from the NFL's.
In the NCAA's system, each team is given the ball, within field goal range, and one possession. This being the most familiar alternative form for overtime, the cries are the loudest for this format. However, the NCAA method has some flaws.
- It doesn't really test either team's special teams.
- Giving a team the ball in scoring position is, imo, contrary to the spirit of the game.
There is one notable alternative which indicates that the NFL has been considering the question of a new OT structure for some time. For some years now, the World League of American Football and its successor, NFL Europe have had a different overtime structure.
In NFL Europe, overtime is 10 minutes, timed as if it were the fourth quarter. It is sudden death, but only if the game is still tied after both teams have had one full posession. Thus, if the team that wins the toss drives down the field, they must take their defense into account when deciding whether to kick the field goal or go for the TD, for the other team will have a shot at matching or beating the score.
In my opinion, the NFL should implement the NFL Europe rule (or at least, the feature of each team being guaranteed one posession). Imagine the drama of an OT that sees one team score a TD, kick the extra point, and the other team scoring a TD and going for 2 to ice the game!
Actually... (Score:2)
well (Score:2)
The point is, your D has to hold their offense. Your offense has to get down the field.
Last year, the Bears pulled off Defense-caused victories back to back in overtime--remember the Saints and 49ers Games? Unreal.
No need to change.
wait a sec... (Score:1)
I think the NFL would be ok with something like basketball - where you play additional time as non-sudden death. Only they wouldnt keep playing extra sessions (like in basketball), limit it to one extra session, ending in tie if the score is still such after 5 or 10 or however many minutes are decided upon. Unfortunately, this does take the fun and thrill out of having an overtime with the removal of sudden death.
Re:wait a sec... (Score:2)
In Europe, they have a cointoss to determine initial posession. If after both teams have had a full posession (ie scored, punted, or turned the ball over) one team has a lead, that team is the winner. If it is still tied, then it becomes sudden death until the clock runs out. If the ten minutes runs out, then the game is declared a tie.
I'm not suggesting the ten minute idea be implemented by the NFL; I suspect that like the other NFL Europe timing differences (35-second instead of 40-second play clock, the game clock restarts when the ball is set by an official after an incomplete pass (except during the last 5 minutes of a half)), it was put in to appease soccer fans who are more used to games lasting 2 hours or so from start to finish. The play clock change doesn't necessarily make the game go faster, though, as you see a lot of delay of game penalties.
Re:wait a sec... (Score:1)
Re:wait a sec... (Score:1)
NCAA-NFL (Score:1)
I love the loose, sloppy, wild way college football is played. NFL is to precise for my tastes and the efforts to nail down definitive NCAA champions and game winners is an attempt by those who don't get enough (if any) enjoyment out of pro-sports to drag rivalry rich sports down to their ever-fractured and precise (boring) level.
That's my two bits.
Btw, Two hot teams in Iowa... whoddathunkit! Go Cyclones! (My dad's alma mater)
Re:NCAA-NFL (Score:2)
While I prefer the NFL to the NCAA (there's way too much to follow with the NCAA, imo), the NFL is not my football league of choice. For me, the true season is from April to June. Yes, that's right: I'm an NFL Europe fan.
Being somehwere between college and the NFL, there's a very nice balance, imo, between precision and sloppiness. Also, knowing that I'll never hear the names of 75% of the players again (except for when they inevitably get cut in August) just has a sort of effect on me. These guys, some of them are playing as a last ditch to get a career going, some are auditioning because they came from a really small school and the pros haven't given them a chance a few are there because they want to build the game in their homeland, and a few are there just to play for the love of the game. They're basically just paid enough to allow them to walk around ($1,000 to $1,500 a game); they're not doing it for the money. And being able to say, I saw Kurt Warner, Marcus Robinson, or La'Roi Glover long before they became stars has a certain cachet to it.