If they trow for the end zone 3 times and don't make it and they end up kicking a FG I am ok with that.
"wpr" wrote:
But this almost never happens in overtime, and that is just my problem with it.
I think that both teams should get a chance to touch the ball, but for a different reason than many other people. I certainly have a strong sense of fair play, and when my team doesn't get to touch the ball, I complain just as much as the next guy. But for me, the biggest problem with sudden death in football is the way it changes the game itself. Solid, aggressive, offensive play gets sacrificed for plodding, conservative plays designed to get the offense just inside field goal range. The touchdowns -- the most exciting event in football -- are deemphasized almost to the point of nonexistence in favor of the much less thrilling field goal. I would rather see coaches settle for field goals only as a last resort, whereas under the current overtime rules, they frequently become the primary goal. No one wants to risk the public scrutiny that comes with losing the ball due to an interception or fumble.
I would rather see a fixed overtime period instituted; whether it is five minutes or 15 is neither here nor there to me. Have the teams duke it out for the entire overtime period. If they are still tied when time expires, they either play another overtime period or the game ends in a tie -- either result would be fine with me. I have never understood what is so distasteful about ties. In many sports throughout the world, ties are a normal occurrence in league play.
I think baseball probably has the fairest "overtime" procedure, but there is no way to bring a directly analogous system to football.
By the way, for those of you who think it is "so much PC garbage" that fans would object to the flipping of a coin giving (that is, chance) giving one team a
statistically significant advantage in overtime, let me ask you this: Would you be equally sanguine about the league abolishing the current rules for opening kickoffs? Would it be acceptable to you if whoever won the coin toss was allowed to receive (or kick) at the beginnings of both halves? The whole point of the current system is it largely negates the advantage of the coin flip. In a game that is supposed to be much more about strategy, strength, speed and skill than luck, what is so objectionable about that?