Death to Sudden Death!

Ok, so I am going to start off by saying this. I love football. My favorite time of year is the 4 months at the end of the year (and the January for the playoffs) when the primary focus of the US, in terms of athletics is on football. However, after the season ends, there isn’t a whole lot of excitement in the world of Football. Yeah, there is the draft and maybe a big free-agency splash, but that is about. But today is the exception, and that thing is what I’m talking about. “What happened?” you ask? Not much, just a simple rule change. But this rule change is one of the most hotly discussed rules in recent years.

Many of you who know football know that I am talking about the rule for Sudden Death Overtime, and know just how out of hand things have gotten because of it. For those of you who do not know, please allow me to give you a bit of a history lesson mixed with some statistics.

In 1974, the NFL put in place the current Overtime (OT) Sudden Death rule in an effort to limit the amount of ties that were occurring. What this did is, in the event of a tie, the game would continue into a 5th 15 minute period until either team scored. The first team to score would win the game. If at the end of the 15 min period neither team had scored, the game would end in a tie. This change did what it was supposed to do, and limit the number of ties that were occurring.

During the time from 1974-1993, the team that got the ball first won the game 34.4% of the time on the first possession. Now here is where things get hairy. In 1994, the league moved the spot of the kickoff back 5 yards from the 35 yard line to the 30 yard line. The reason for this change was that kickers were kicking the ball into or out the back of the end zone on a consistent basis, resulting in a touchback and no chance for return. Making this change moved the average starting point for offenses from the 20 yard line (on a touchback the ball is places on the 20 yard line) to around the 30 yard line. Now most of you are asking, “How does this translate into Sudden Death?”

After this change, the team that won the coin toss at the start of OT won the game (on the first possession) 59.8% of the time. Basically since offenses didn’t have to go as far to get into field goal range, the team that lost the coin toss didn’t even get to touch the ball. Not very fair or completive at all.
Now that you know, here is how the rule is changing.
1) If first team to score a touchdown wins the game
2) If the team that wins the coin toss kicks a field goal, the opposing team gets an opportunity to have the ball and
a. Tie the game with a field goal or
b. Win the game with a touchdown
3) If both teams have had the ball for at least one possession and the game remains at a tie, the first team to score wins

Now, before you all run in the streets celebrating this change, know this. These rules will only apply in the playoffs. So during the regular season, it’s going to be same old sudden death as usual. But this change is still a good thing. This simply means that at the owners meatings next year, they will evaluate if the change was a success and allowed for more competitive and fair OT’s. If they like the results they will most likely vote allow this change to occur in the regular season, where it will have the most impact.

Overall, I am very happy with this change. This means that games will not be decided by a coin toss, which was what was starting to happen. It give teams a fair chance to compete and remain competitive if they find themselves on the losing side of the coin toss. So Kudos NFL for a step in the right direction.