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The Daily Dose/September 30, 2007
By Gaylon Kent
The Writer's Shack
Special Sunday mail bag edition!...
We get mail here at the Writer's Shack. Not too much, but enough to keep the staff earning their keep. Today's featured letter comes from Rick Barton, of parts unknown, though some minor investigating by our Guest Relations department suggests he might be from Texas.
Mr. Barton writes:
I certainly agree with your statement regarding NFL Overtime: It's possible to lose in OT without even having the chance to be on offense. If you tried to have a sudden death inning in overtime baseball, there would be a fan uprising. How can you decide a game without both teams having a chance to bat (or, in the NFL, go on offense)? College overtime is great, exciting, and you know that you will have a chance to see both teams' offenses and defenses, and, most likely, special teams for a field goal or extra point. I wish the NFL fans could be inspired to protest the joke which is the NFL overtime, but I don't see it happening. Most media members want the least football possible. That means the shortest games and the fewest number of games. A "real" overtime would lengthen those games compared to today's situation, so the media is firmly against it, and with most people being easily influenced by the media, change will have to come from somewhere else, I'm afraid.
Really dedicated Bottom Ten readers - like Rick Barton - will recall the Week 3 NFL poll, where NFL Overtime was ranked #9, based on Miami's 16-13 OT loss to Washington on September 9. Miami lost the toss and Washington took the ball and won the game on a field goal. NFL overtime rules stipulate that the first team to score wins, so the game was over.
Since nobody cares about the Miami Dolphins, nobody got too worked up about it, though had it happened to the Patriots the entire country would've taken note, including the Bottom Ten staff, who, liking a bandwagon like anyone else, probably would have ranked NFL Overtime as high as #5.
A Little History: Football got on the overtime bandwagon later than other sports. The NFL first adopted overtime in 1941, when it got around to providing for an extra period for playoff games, which previously had been allowed to end in a tie. This had not been that big of a deal, because even though it was founded in 1920, the NFL did not hold its first scheduled playoffs until 1933, when it split into Eastern and Western divisions and played one game to determine the league champion and through 1940 none of these games had ended tied. It did not adopt regular season overtime until 1974 (fun historical reference: this was also the year the NFL moved the goal posts to the end line), and the NCAA was content with tie games until 1995 when they adopted overtime for bowl games, a year before it was adopted for regular season games.
When the NFL adopted regular season overtime, it merely adopted the system that had long been in place for playoff games: an extra 15 minute period, with the first team to score winning, assuming someone scores, which doesn't always happen, which is another flaw in the NFL system: games can still end in a tie, which seems to defeat the purpose of overtime, which is to determine a winner.
History is not entirely clear as to why a sudden death format was picked, though if we were running a professional football league in 1941 we might well think that professional football was physically demanding enough and that no one really wants to play an additional 15 minutes and that a sudden death period made sense.
We agree with Mr. Barton that it might well be time for the NFL, its treasured Broadcast Partners and the players association to reconsider it's overtime format. One, sudden death is not entirely fair. A Mr. Barton so astutely pointed out, picture a baseball game ending in sudden death. Or a hockey game ending in a shootout. (Whoops, they already do sometimes! Our bad!).
On the plus side, NFL overtime - with the exception of the game ending when someone scores - plays by the same rules used in regulation. This is not true in the NCAA, where overtime is similar to extra innings in baseball. Team A gets the ball on the 25-yard-line. They get four plays to either score or get a first down. After scoring or turning the ball over, Team B takes over on the 25 and takes its cuts. The team leading at the end of the session is the winner, and no one is leading they do it again.
But even though both teams get the ball, there are drawbacks, because two elements important in regulation are taken out of the picture, namely the clock and the battle for field position. Your stud punter, who's been kicking touchbacks from the goal line all day, is sitting on the bench texting his girlfriend, about as useful as designated hitter in a National League stadium, because no one punts in NCAA overtime. Nor do they kickoff.
But both teams do get the football. Let's be honest, to deprive a team of a turn on offense is issuing that team some major broom handle, and this problem is eliminated in the NCAA. You give up a score, that's all right, you've got a possession coming to tie it up or win it yourself. Also, it's pretty compelling. Staff here at the Writer's Shack has both played and officiated overtime games like this and they're pretty exciting for both players and fans, though, honestly, officials prefer games ending in regulation because that's just more time for us to screw something up.
A Solution: The Writer's Shack bylaws do not allow for criticize something without offering a corresponding solution, so listen up.
Let's compromise. Don't want to play an entire 15 minute period to determine a winner? Then play eight minutes. The provision for a 15 minute period wasn't handed down to Pete Rozelle on Mt. Sinai; it can be changed to an eight minute period without completely upsetting the natural order. Basketball plays a shortened period without Dr. Naismith rolling in his grave and the NFL can cut a regular period more or less in half for overtime and the sun will still rise in east on Monday morning. Eight minutes is enough for both teams to get the ball at least once. The best part is, you're still playing the game by the rules, not bastardizing them to accommodate the extra session.
Don't let Rick Barton steal all the glamor! Get your comments published on the Writer's Shack! Email us here!
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