The most difficult aspect of the discu sion regarding the inadequacies of NFL overtime is it tends to splinter into so many different arguments Mark McGwire Jersey at once.
Are we talking regular-season NFL overtime, or the playoffs? Are we debating whether NFL OT is superior to the college variety? Are we concerned about getting the game finished before someone gets hurt or determining a just winner?
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Sometimes it appears the misdirection is strategic. If one can cloud the conversation with extraneous elements, one never gets to the core of the i sue. Which is, simply: Is the National Football League doing the best job po sible to establish a fair victor in games that finished tied in regulation?
The answer, just as simply, is no.
This has been reinforced multiple times in games of enormous consequence over the past several seasons. One of those was a Super Bowl. One was a game that directly determined one of the Super Bowl participants. Not every game that required an overtime to decide the winner was resolved in an unsatisfactory manner, because they do not all end quickly and depend so heavily on the to s of a coin. Too many do, though, because one is too many and it's way too many if one Orlando Cepeda Jersey of those games happens to arrive in this nation's biggest annual sporting event.
Some in the NFL recognize this, which is why there will be another push to change overtime rules at next week's Willie McGee Jersey league spring meetings starting Monday in Key Biscayne, Fla. The Chiefs are known to be in favor of a rule change; CBS Sports reported the Cowboys are in favor, as well.
The league ought to come out of there with a policy that dictates each team is allowed the opportunity to po se s the ball at least once in the overtime period. How to get there is to be decided. Dismi sing the di senting arguments is almost too easy.
1. 'Just get a stop' is not logical."My feeling is, the other team has the chance to stop them. If they don't stop them, its their fault, it's not the other team's fault,"Vikings coach Mike Zimmer said during the league's annual meetings in March. "Stop them. Thats what their defenses get paid to do, right?"
This is refrain is so common among those who oppose changes to replay that it could be released Mike Shannon Jersey as a top-40 single. It's a simple statement that sounds like a good campaign promise, but exposing its inanity takes no work at all.
Because why should only one defense be required to "get a stop"? The Patriots' defense was paid to sit and spectate, not to get a stop, during the overtime of the 2018 AFC championship game. Their side won the coin flip following a 31-31 regulation tie, and the members of the defense were free to relax and watch Tom Brady drive the offense toward a game-winning touchdown after the Pats received the kickoff. All that Yadier Molina Jersey was mi sing was some cigars, beer and 11 BarcaLoungers.
The New England defensehad allowed 24 points in the fourth quarter, ahistorically poor performance, but because of the coin flip the units vulnerability was not tested.
To simply declare "get a stop" is to acknowledge, I've got no argument, but I'm opposed to change."
2. No one is arguing for college football's format.There may be some in the media paid for their opinions suggesting the NCAA arrangement of giving each team a po se sion at the 25-yard-line is superior. And maybe it is. That's a debate as intangible as whether "The Wire"or "Game of Thrones"is the superior television show.
(After "GoT's" me s of a final season, I think we know the clear answer to that one.)
But campaigning to keep it out of the NFL Albert Pujols Jersey is either a usele s exercise or a needle s distraction, depending on the intent of the person speaking. The league almost certainly will either tweak its current sudden-death rules or leave them be. It is not looking for a revolution. It is certainly not looking for this particular revolution, because it has the potential to create havoc for television schedules as games drag through multiple extra periods.
3. Player wear and tear isnt the i sue.As it stands now, a regular-season NFL overtime lasts only 10 minutes. Colts coach Frank Reich said he wishes it werent so short. "That would be the one area that I personally wish something Chris Beck Jersey could be done there," he said at the league meetings.
The shorter overtime, however, mitigates concern about whether guaranteeing an offensive po se sion to each team would expose players to a dangerous amount of additional collisions. The Saints' drive to defeat the Falcons in 2018 Week 2 lasted more than seven minutes. There would have been only 2:55 worth of game time for the Falcons to match the score. That's not too much additional football for any profe sional.
As for the postseason, when there is no theoretical end to the game, the extra time that might result would be warranted to produce a just winner. The Super Bowl is on the line. It makes careers and legacies. There's no one on the field who wouldn't want a fair shot at reaching or winning that game.
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4. It isnt just about the Patriots.That actually was one argument presented not surprisingly, as Harrison Bader Jersey to why people were complaining about the absurdity of each team not getting a chance to po se s the ball in OT.
In fact, there were complaints from prior Red Schoendienst Jersey playoff overtime games decided by a single offensive po se sion. ESPN's estimable Scott Van Pelt for each team to get an overtime po se sion after the Cardinals defeated the Packers in an NFC playoff game in 2016. That was a year before the Patriots won the coin to s and subsequently drove to victory against the Falcons in Super Bowl 51and three years before that performance was reprised against the Chiefs.
Really, does anyone hate the Cardinals? Of course not. But they hate seeing games decided by something as arbitrary as a coin flip.
Teams winning the coin flip in overtime under the current rules have won 50 percent of the time, with the loser winning just 44 percent and the other 6 percent ending in ties. Thats not an insignificant difference.
In the playoffs, however, the results have been overwhelmingly in favor of the coin-flip winner scoring a touchdown and ending the game on the initial drive. Five of eight overtime playoff games since the playoff rules changed in 2011 63 percent were ended by the team receiving the kickoff immediately driving for a touchdown. The coin to s winner won 75 percent of the time.
That's not just. It's not logical. The NFL can do better.
It's an easier decision than choosing Adam Wainwright Jersey between heads and tails.