An Idea For NFL Overtime

(Photo by Al Messerschmidt/Getty Images)

I was listening to Sirius NFL radio this week, and one of the analysts (Pat Kirwan) was lamenting that Denver beat New England in OT, and Tom Brady never got to touch the ball.  So, I got to thinking about a better idea for overtime. 

What I dislike about the current OT format is that who gets the ball first is completely random, based on the flip of a coin.  In my opinion, how each team played during regulation should have a larger bearing on who gets the ball first.

As an example, you could look at the offensive stats, and whichever team had more total offensive yards gained during regulation gets the ball first (via kickoff, with no onside kicks allowed) in overtime. 

We could get really creative, and come up with a list of tie breakers, for the rare occasion when the teams had the same offensive yards.

You all probably have some thoughts on this.  No flamers please, this is just an idea for a way to make who gets the ball first in OT more directly related to how the game was played, instead of being decided by a coin flip.

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