Brett Favre OT Rules and the Lost Finale: Two Unending Arguments

The NFL recently changed the rules for overtime in the playoffs, but declined this week to make the same changes for the regular season.

The change in overtime rules, now preventing the game from ending in a first-possession field goal, came after Minnesota Vikings quarterback Brett Favre never touched the ball in overtime in the NFC Championship game this year. 

Some, like myself, have since dubbed it the “Brett Favre Overtime Rule” because the fact he didn’t get a chance to win the game in overtime seems to be the event that prompted the NFL owners to stop tabling discussion on overtime rules changes and do something.

This view has prompted argument, specifically in a piece written  yesterday here , and a piece written on Feb. 28 here .

This past Sunday, the obsessively watchable TV series “Lost” had its series finale, and the last 10 minutes of cutting between the Island and the “Flash Sideways” at the church also have prompted a ton of debate over what the scenes meant.

There are those who think the overtime rules changes are a coincidence when it comes to Favre, just as there are those who think the church scenes in Lost somehow invalidate the rest of the show by providing a “Super Happy” ending to the whole thing.

Both arguments are ones with no resolution in sight.

Favre doesn’t get to touch the ball, yet pointing this out is unfair in some people’s eyes.

The writers of Lost wanted to add a Purgatory story line to the end of the Lost mythos, so therefore the last episode was “bad” to a segment of the fanbase.

Well I can tell you that the “coincidence” of the overtime rules change is too convenient for it to be a coincidence, and if anyone thought the last episode of “Lost” was a cop-out, they’ve obviously never seen the “Battlestar Galactica” finale.

If you want to see producers and writers take a great series and cap it with a great big “Go Pound Sand” message to the fans, watch the series finale of the updated “Battlestar Galactica.”

The NFL is a product, and the NFL owners obviously realized a guy like Favre can’t be relegated to the sidelines in an overtime playoff game.

“Lost” is a product that had a lot of storylines to resolve, and the producers and writers did a pretty good job wrapping everything up. Nothing is perfect and nitpicks for the finale are relatively few on my end.

At the end of the day, the overtime rules were changed for a reason, and that reason was Brett Favre.

The ending of Lost left unanswered questions for a reason, and those reasons should be clear to any fan of the show (HINT: The show never intended to answer every single question).

If you want to discuss TV series finales in the comments, I’m game for it, knock yourselves out.