From the Sidelines
By Cody Lillich
The weather has turned warmer, the mosquitoes will be here before we know it and that just means the talk over football will start up.
And the people in the NFL are meeting and changing up the rules… again.
Recently, the NFL voted 28-4 to change the rules of playoff games that go into overtime. Basically, if a team wins the coin flip, they can only score a touchdown to end the game. If they kick a field goal, the opposing team gets a chance to respond.
Buffalo, Baltimore, Cincinnati and Minnesota were the four votes against the rule change.
The rule has the chance of spreading to all regular season games as well with a vote expected sometime later this year.
There are some good and bad points I see to this rule.
I do understand the new rule was passed because all teams cared in overtime was winning the coin toss and getting into a field goal range where their kicker was “reliable” enough to win the game. Kickers have gotten very good with ranges expanding year-after-year but is it really the way you want to win a game and not let the opposing team a chance to respond?
I like that it takes away the “first-to-score-anything” mentality of overtime that is in place for NFL regular season games. However, I think the better thing for fans is for both teams to get the ball no matter what. If it’s tied after one OT, then play 2OT, and if it’s tied after that then go to 3OT. That is what fans want to see – two competitive teams in a battle to see who is better.
Give the fans what they pay for – a hard fought game – and if that goes 2OT or 3OT, oh well, they got more for their money and got to see the best in competitive football.