New OT Rule
 

NFL could change overtime format for playoffs - NFL - Yahoo! Sports

So both teams would get the ball, which everyone knows it should have been that way all along, but if the first team scores a TD instead of a FG, then it is still Game Over.

Why can't they get this right?

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I like that. Start at your own 20 an go the length of the field and who ever score a TD 1st wins.

NDIANAPOLIS (AP)—An NFL spokesman said Saturday the league could change its overtime format for playoff games at a meeting next month.

Under the new format, both teams would get the ball at least once unless the first team to get the ball scores a touchdown, Greg Aiello said. If the first team to get the ball makes a field goal and the other team ties the game, action would continue until a team scores again.

Under the current rules, the first team to score wins.

“There have been various concepts that have been discussed in recent years, but this one has never been proposed,” Aiello said.

The competition committee will discuss the new concept with teams and players at league meetings March 21-24 in Orlando, Fla., when it could come to a vote. At least two thirds of the teams would need to agree to the changes for new rules to be adopted.

The competition committee met with the players’ union and players on Thursday during the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis. Discussion continued when the competition committee met with a general managers’ advisory committee on Friday.

The debate about the rules gained steam after the NFC championship game, when New Orleans beat Minnesota 31-28 in overtime and Brett Favre’s(notes) Vikings never got the ball in the extra period. Under the proposed rule, Minnesota would have gotten another possession because the Vikings didn’t allow a touchdown.

Overtime was adopted for regular season games in 1974, a sudden-death format that allowed games to end in a tie if neither team scored in 15 minutes. Overtime for playoff games always has been sudden death.

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Sounds like to me some people in the NFL are bitter the Saints beat the Vikings.

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Just leave it as it is. If one team scores first, the other team's defense just didn't do their job. IMO

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Yep. F&%$#@ crybabies.

This is a stupid idea! Leave it as it is!

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They aren't going to make us go back in time and replay the NFC Championship game! If they change the rule, it's no big deal. The way it is now worked FOR us this time and the odds are it would have worked AGAINST us the next time. The way our offense plays, I can deal with it being either way. Personally, I don't think they are going to want to change it and make the games even longer than they are now. It all comes down to the flip of a coin, 50/50. How can you get more fair than that?

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Here's an idea: tied games.

Sudden death overtime is not meant to be "fair". It is meant to end a game that 2 teams were incapable of winning in regulation.

I personally don't see a problem with tied games.

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In the playoffs, you have to eliminate someone.

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Tied games are pointless IMO. Why even play if nobody wins?

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Stupid idea.

If you don't like sudden death play full quarters until someone wins in the playoffs.

Regular season just let them end in a tie.

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i know some of you have noticed my signature.....but i'll post it again for everyone....it was said by colin cowherd when people were complaining about the overtime rules earlier in the season

when asked about it his response was simple and to the point

"deal with it or you can go play the saints and get trounced by 30 and you won't have to worry about it."

overtime is meant to end the game and decide which team deserves the right to win the game once and for all......most people complain because they think the team that wins the coin toss automatically wins the game....of course you get the advantage by winning the coin toss, but you also have to execute

in fact, this season it was nearly 50-50. teams that won the coin toss in overtime only scored on their first drives about 50% of the time......the other 50% both teams touched the ball

thats not the exact stat but i remember reading it after the NFC championship game when people were *****ing, yet again, about overtime

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I am for play full quarters till a winner is crowned in the regular season as well as the playoff. I do not care if it turns into eight man football.

Let see teams go deep into the bench to protect the stars or put them out there and risk it all for the win. Ahhh now I hear the union yelling. lol I hate this system from day one. Go back to the way it use to be. Millionares and the media are not greater than the game.

The owners and the union are nothing more than self serving babies.

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Here's an idea. Why not just let the game keep going if it is tied at the end of regulation? Start the 5th quarter as a sudden-death quarter and continue the game where it is. That seems fair to me, but I'm probably forgetting something.

Presently...a team can be on a drive that could result in a victory for them, but they have to hurry-up because at the end of the 4th quarter, they wipe the slate clean and start with a kick-off. I don't know why they do that.

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just like half time......the defense did its job keeping the other team out of the endzone for regulation.......why punish them by making them have to play another whole qtr and do it again

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Because the game is tied at regulation and you have to do something fair...that is, if you have to do something.

I'm just making a suggestion, personally I'm good with the way it is.

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I'd prefer both teams receive the ball at least once, then sudden death after that if necessary.

Thats pretty simple and exciting.

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I bet this was started by the Vikings owner after we beat Favre down. They were talking about it during the overtime if I remember correctly. BOOOOOOOOhooooooooooo YOU LOST GET OVER IT! I don't care one way or another but lets get it right this time. Rule changes mean you never got it right the first time. You need to think outside the box and 30 to 50 years down the road not just for today.

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But why? Both teams already had an hour to win the game. What's an extra possession going to do?

Tied games in the regular season and keep it as it is in the post season. You can't win it in 60 minutes? Too bad.

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Because its simple and exciting.

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It doesn't get simpler or more exciting than SUDDEN DEATH.

Both sides getting the ball is just crybaby college BS.

The college system is stupid. It is as bad as penalty kicks in soccer.

I'd rather overtime be mud wrestling between opposing cheer squads than both sides get a turn.

:argue:

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To me it does.

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Can we get that commercial free in overtime? :D

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"The NFL has had 325 overtime games since the rule was adopted in 1974.

The results:
Both teams have had possession 235 times (72.3%).
The team that has won the toss has won 169 times (52.0%).
The team that has lost the toss has won 141 times (43.4%).
223 games were decided by a field goal (68.6%).
86 games were decided by a TD (26.5%).
One game was decided by a safety (0.3%).
There have been 15 ties (4.6%)."

Exact quote from USA Today, 52%-43%. Seems close enough to me. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Leave it as it is. The team that loses the coin toss just needs to step up their defense. This game does have TWO sides of the ball.

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Actually, I kind of like the proposed NFL overtime rule. Even if there may be no stats to back up their belief, a lot of people, especially losing team fans, believe that losing a coin toss has denied them a fair chance in overtime. So, what the heck. Let's give them a pacifier if they need one. Who knows, our Saints just might profit from this some day.

I don't really care why the NFL brass are proposing a new ruling. If it is to sooth the whiners, who cares? The tears and sour grapes of ESPN and some Vikings enthusiasts in no way detract from the reality that the SAINTS are the 2010 NFL CHAMPS. No amount of whining or crying foul will change or diminish that fact. We're Number One.

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I have to agree with this. There is no perfect system, especially the college system.

Another idea I have heard is just letting regular season games end in a tie at the end of the 4th Q. Then let OT be used for only playoff games. This is the kind of idea that just yells LEAVE THE CURRENT SYSTEM IN PLACE.

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Leave the rule like it is.

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There is nothing wrong with our system. If you want the damn ball in OT and you lost the toss then how about you stop the team or get a turnover.

So what you are saying is the Defense doesn't matter in the game of football anymore or any other unit.

LEAVE IT ALONE this isn't football for little boys. This is grown man tackle football get the game over already.

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Remember the Chargers-Dolphins Epic in Miami game?

Man was that a game, a heavyweight battle, and both teams got the ball...

I agree, that's what football is about...toughness, heart, character...who wants it more...

I'm for playing a full quarter, but at least one offensive possession each...

Screw MCD Smith and his wusses of modern-day, unionized players; give us football...

Then again, the NFL and its players may be the one enemy unto themselves that could bring about the demise of their monopoly...

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The problem with all those numbers is that they go back to the beggining of the overetime rule, when the rules were different and it was more difficult to score. Also, they kicked off from the 40 back then which usually meant that drives started at the 20. Now, drives typically start at about the 30 and the rules favor the offense. Because of that, the percentage now heavily favors the first team to touch the ball. The coin toss is still 50/50 though. I don't see how lengthening the game will make it better.

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nah, i think the game will be fine if left AS IS. no changes necessary. either win it in 60 or step up your offense / defense in overtime

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I have always thought Sudden Death was stupid. In what other situation, sports or otherwise, does only one participant get a shot?

As for game length, the longer the game, the better chance that the better team will win. This eliminates losing on a bad call or fluke play. Plus the cash-poor NFL (joking) can sell more commercial time.

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Both teams have a shot at scoring in the NFL during sudden death. Lots of overtime games have ended on a defensive touchdown.

This rule change is more about bitter fans that don' think losing to a field goal is really losing.

Just remove field goals from overtime rules.

Problem solved. The winner will have scored a touchdown and we don't have silly kindergarten turn taking.

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Case in point: The Arizona - Green Bay Wildcard Game from this season. The Cards defense stepped up and made the play when they needed it. Defensive touchdown. In Overtime. Game over.

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What? Only one participant gets a shot at winning?
You mean the team that gets to kick has to kick it to the other team and then they can't field a defense or something?

The "better" team should've been able to win it in regulation. If they can't win it in regulation, are they really the better team?

And you are telling me an OT game cannot be lost on a bad call or fluke play?

..and speaking of TV and commercial times, games going longer than the time slotted for them will wreck havoc with network programming and advertising money, not make it better.

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Hockey has the sudden death but the puck goes back and forth. I'd rather them play the full overtime like basketball.

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I like the sudden death, unless our defense sucks and we lose the toss :P

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probably the greatest football game ever played

January 2nd, 1982

Chargers win 41-38

Flashback: Winslow, Chargers outlast Miami


The thing Kellen Winslow recalls most about the game many consider the greatest in NFL history is the crowd.

"I remember how quiet it was in the Orange Bowl when we went ahead 24-0," the Chargers' Pro Football Hall of Fame tight end said recently. "And then I remember how loud it got when the Dolphins came back and scored on that hook-and-ladder play just before the half.
"It was so noisy at halftime, under those rickety stands, we couldn't hear our coaches in the locker room."


It was a day filled with as much frenzy as flying footballs. Just when one team appeared to have this 1981 AFC Divisional Playoff Game under control, the other came roaring back on an afternoon when the quarterbacks were hotter than the sweltering 85-degree temperatures.


http://www.profootballhof.com/assets...slow_Nov20.jpg
The Chargers had Dan Fouts throwing to Winslow and Charlie Joiner, a future Canton triumvirate that was the heart of a Don Coryell offense so deep and gifted, it ranked among the most explosive in league history.
The problem, of course, was the San Diego defense, which had holes big enough to house all of Don Shula's glittering trophies. So even when the Chargers raced off to that 24-0 first-period lead, they had to know it wasn't safe.


When Shula replaced struggling quarterback David Woodley with old, reliable Don Strock a few minutes later, momentum swung like some huge pendulum. Strock drove the Dolphins to 10 quick points, then, with time running out in the half, Shula reached back to an old playground somewhere for a gimmick play that couldn't have worked any better.



It's called the hook-and-ladder, and Duriel Harris' 15-yard reception and ensuing lateral to trailing Tony Nathan produced a 40-yard touchdown that closed the gap to 24-17 and set the stage for a theatrical second half.
If the game took on the appearance of some Shakespearean drama, then Winslow was its Olivier.


Shula later called him "Superman," and who could argue? Cape or no cape, all Winslow did was catch 13 passes for 166 yards, then rise eerily out of the crowd to block Uwe von Schamann's 43-yard attempt at a game-winning field goal with the teams tied at 38 in the final seconds of regulation.


"I told 'Big Hands' [Gary Johnson] and Louie [Kelcher] to give me some penetration, and I'll get it," Winslow said. "They did, and I think I got one finger on it."


By then, the heat, humidity, and emotion had drained everyone, and the thought of playing an overtime period was almost too much to comprehend.
"I remember Kim Bokamper fighting through Don Macek and Ed White to get to Fouts, only I was there to block," Winslow said. "After the play, Kim looked up from the ground and said, 'Damn, Kellen. What are you doing back here?' We were both so tired, we just started to laugh."


The Dolphins weren't laughing a few minutes later, in overtime, when von Schamann had another field-goal attempt-this time a 34-yarder-blocked by defensive end Leroy Jones. And the disbelieving crowd of 73,735 began to wonder if this surreal game would ever end.


It finally did after Fouts found Joiner for 39 yards down the middle to set up Rolf Benirschke, who eight minutes earlier had missed a 27-yard field goal, for a 29-yard attempt. The kick seemed to hang in the air forever before sailing through the uprights for a 41-38 victory.


"It was like all the adrenalin rushed out of me and all the fatigue and soreness rushed in," said Winslow, who needed two teammates to help transport his cramped 240 pounds to the locker room.


Later, as a lone reporter stood by his cubicle, Winslow's large, tired body was draped over a long bench. He looked up, tried to smile, and then uttered the perfect tag line to this unforgettable game.


"I feel," he said, "as if I've been to the mountaintop."


History Release » Flashback: Winslow, Chargers outlast Miami

for a good break down of the game

Records and individual performances

The game featured many new records by players of both teams. By the time it was over Miami and San Diego had set playoff records for the most points scored by both teams (79), most total yards by both teams (1,036), and most passing yards by both teams (836)[1].




Strock had the best single game performance of his career, completing 29 of 43 passes for 403 yards and four touchdowns. Harris caught six passes for 106 yards. Nathan rushed for 48 yards, caught nine passes for 114 yards, and scored two touchdowns. Hardycaught five passes for 89 yards and a touchdown.


Fouts finished the game completing 33 of 53 passing attempts for a franchise record 433 yards and three touchdowns. His attempts, completions, and passing yards were all NFL postseason records[4]. Joiner caught seven passes for 108 yards. Muncie rushed for 124 yards and a touchdown. In addition to his 56-yard punt return touchdown, Chandler caught six passes for 106 yards. Brooks recorded 143 all-purpose yards (19 rushing, 31 receiving, 85 kickoff return, eight punt return) and a pair of touchdown catches[5].


But perhaps the best performance of the game was put in by Kellen Winslow. In addition to his blocked field goal, he recorded an NFL playoff record 13 receptions for 166 yards and a touchdown, despite suffering numerous injuries. During the contest, he was treated for a pinched nerve in his shoulder, dehydration, severe cramps, and a gash in his lower lip that required three stitches. A picture of an exhausted Winslow being helped off the field by two teammates after the game is an enduring image in NFL lore and has been replayed constantly ever since

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Havoc? really?