The NFL Overtime Rule Should Change

Of late, there has been significant debate regarding the NFL overtime rule and whether or not it should be changed. I firmly believe that it should. There are those that will argue differently, and there are valid points to keeping it as is. Just as many pundits will give an equal number of reasons as to why it should change.

Peter King, with the help of Jim Nantz, put together some interesting statistics as to the current antiquity of the rule. When it was put into place to begin with, kickers were hitting about 60 percent of their field-goal chances.

Now that number is over 80 percent. Starting field position has increased seven yards, based largely on where the kickoff is taken.

In addition to kickers being more accurate, they also are making longer field goals. That means that, with better starting field position, coupled with increased distance and accuracy from kickers, drives to score have to be shorter.

Which then makes sense that in the last five years, 60 percent of games are won by the team that wins the coin toss. Forty percent are won on the first possession.

That shouldn't be what we want as sports fans.

Let's draw a parallel. The NFL's version of sudden death is equivalent to an NBA game ending after the first team scores a basket in overtime. Say Team A hits a layup. Regardless that Team B could hit a three pointer, the game would be over. Simple as that.

Both teams had an equal shot at the jump ball. Team B could easily have stopped Team A from scoring by playing defense. The NBA, though, doesn't do that. Nor should they, it's borderline ridiculous and fans would rightly raise a riot over it. Sure, there are differences in the speed of the game play, but the point remains the same.

The NFL, as many see it, has several options.

Many are concerned that they'll go right to the college rule. While it works and is effective, it doesn't make sense given the strength and size of the NFL players. You couldn't start them deep enough in their own territory to create an adequate length of field to play defense.

Even guaranteeing a possession doesn't necessarily work unless you make it an out-and-out guarantee. There are some plans that would call for a team to only get a possession if the first team scored a field goal. That doesn't alleviate the problem of giving both teams the chance to score.

To me, the solution is the NBA model, but slightly modified. It's also what should be used in the playoffs. The NFL needs to force teams to play an entire extra quarter. If it's tied after that initial period, sudden death commences until someone scores. No more ties.

We need to create a mechanism that doesn't force teams to change how they play on a current drive based on what was done by someone else. If a team only needs a field goal, they can be more conservative. Touchdowns require a different mentality, both by the offense and defense as they approach third and fourth downs.

In essence, we're creating another fourth quarter.

Other rules should follow for the extra session. Give each team all three timeouts, that will allow the opposition not to kneel out a clock at the two-minute warning (unless a team has burned them). Each coach should get one challenge, but the booth should have authority to review any play at any time.

I'm not convinced that we'll ever see this type of format, but we can't continue on with four out of every ten overtime games ending without one offense ever touching the ball. Players can't be in favor of a rule that allows for the result to be decided based on the flip of a coin.

As the NFL heads to the offseason in the next several weeks, a change of this rule should be at the top of the agenda.