A Solution for Overtime in the NFL
The hot new debate this year revolves around overtime. While most people are looking at the coin toss, or implementing a college-style overtime system, I have a better proposal.
Eliminate overtime completely in regular season and pre-season games.
Overtime was introduced into the playoff rules in 1941, and added to the pre-season in 1955. In 1974, the rule was changed to allow for only a single sudden-death overtime period in regular and pre-season games. During the playoffs, the timing rules are reset to the first quarter (3 timeouts) while the regular and pre-season games replay the fourth quarter with only two timeouts awarded.
Already, there are subtle differences between playoff overtime and regular season overtime. For our purposes, let's just talk about the regular season for now.
Why Regular Season Overtime Should Be Eliminated
- Fairness: The coin toss rules clearly favor the team with the ball first. All it takes is a field goal to win it.
- Length of Game: Football games regularly exceed 3 hours as is now, regardless of overtime. With the two to five minutes it takes to set up overtime, these games can run an extra 20 minutes to an hour. The average baseball game is starting to become quicker than the average football game.
- Injury: Study after study shows that injuries in football games occur either very early in the game (when players are "cold") or very late in games, when players are fatigued. While players are more responsible for injuries at the beginning of games by not warming up, fatigue injuries come down to coaching. While the fatigue-related injury might not happen during overtime, the likelihood accumulates with each extra period played. Eliminating more opportunity for injury would definitely sit well with the players union.
- Union Violation: Players get paid by the game, technically, but don't get paid overtime. I know it's a picky point, but something tells me there's a loophole here for a player to sue the league. Not that they'd win, but it's there. Randy Moss already takes plays off during the games, overtime probably isn't his bag, baby.
- Eliminate Wasted Time: Rather than playing conservatively with time running out, coaches might not "play for overtime" but play to win. John Madden, hot coach that he was, suggested that the Patriots run out the clock against the Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI. It was the "smart thing to do". Instead, Bill Bellichick made a risky choice and moved his team into field goal position. Winning is always a smarter thing to do.
- Add intrigue: Every year, the playoff scenarios include "Team A gets into the playoffs with a win or a tie, and a loss or tie by either Team B or Team C." The tie part of these scenarios has always been scoffed at, since ties in the NFL are as common as ties in the MLB All-Star game (or named starters to the NFL Pro Bowl actually playing in it). Knowing that a tie could get you into the playoffs could change a coach's endgame strategy.
- Make 'em coach early and often: While there is a 2 pt card out there, coaches might be inclined to go for 2 pts in a close game much earlier in the 4th quarter rather than the simple PAT. Like the unexpected 2nd quarter onside-kick, the fake PAT could become more prevelant. I want to see Martin Grammatica throw or catch a 2 pt conversion. Let's spice it up a bit.
- Eliminate an all-too-common occurance: Twenty five games went into overtime this year during the regular season — that's 10% of the games, up from 17 games in 2001 and 13 in 2000. Any given week had an overtime game or two. We had the first tie in five years this season; not only did both teams make the playoffs (And Atlanta helped by that tie), that game was decided by just 6 inches. That was perhaps the only "good" overtime game all year.
- Make overtime special: Overtime in just the playoffs would increase the excitement. Whether it's the current sudden death or a college-type overtime, this would make overtime mean more. These games would also become additional tests of endurance — rather than almost become conditioned to overtime (like the Falcons or Chargers), overtime could increase the adrenelin flow because of its once-a-year type occurance.
How The Standings Would Have Changed
Let's just go back an assume that the other 24 overtime games contested during the regular season ended as ties, not as wins or losses. While Cincinnati would still be the team on the clock right now, the playoff scenarios would have changed drastically. In the AFC, Miami would have won the East, and the two wild card teams would have been Indianapolis and Denver. In the NFC, nothing would have changed — New Orleans would still miss by a half game because Atlanta would have gone 8-4-4 rather than 9-6-1 (Atlanta also beat New Orleans twice head-to-head).
But I believe that the playoffs could have been drastically altered. New Orleans would have not been playing for overtime against the Vikings; other defenses may have "butched" up a little for the ends of games. Teams would have not played the prevent in games they were up by three, or by seven or by eight.
During week one of the regular season, there were three overtime games. They took between 3:25 and 3:41 to play — the shortest ending on a kickoff return by the Jets to start it out. By contrast, all of the rest of the games took under 3:25. Seven took 3 hours or under. San Francisco and San Diego took 3:53 to complete a regular game and 11 minutes of overtime in week 11. The Pittsburgh-Atlanta tie took 4:07. It must drive the networks absolutely batty when these games head into overtime. But it should also drive the teams nuts as well.
Economically, regular-season overtime is unfeasible
If an early game heads into overtime, it tromps over the afternoon game. While the broadcasters do have "emergency" commercials ready, from what I understand these commercials earn less than the game time ads. Oftentimes, the networks are running PSAs or keep coverage live because they run out of backup ads if overtime drags on. The second game revenue gets sapped, since the second game can't be seen in all markets. Annoucers have already run out of interesting material by the beginning of the fourth quarter; overtime announcing sometimes just gets plain loopy. But the stadiums also don't see a burst in revenue. The period between overtimes is supposed to be two to three minutes; hardly equal to halftime. Fans will stay in their seats rather than shopping. Post-game shopping revenue is probably lower as well, since sitting for the extra half-hour to hour doesn't exactly inspire folks to linger, but to get out of the stadium.
The increase in the number of injury possibilities, mentioned above, also hurt a team. Players get paid injured or not. Having your marquee player on the field and not in physical therapy is the goal.
Why Pre-Season Overtime Should Be Eliminated
Dear lord, pre-season overtime should just be another euphemism for "injury settlement". By the time the fourth quarter rolls around in the already too numerous pre-season football games, you have mostly players vying to be the final man on the squad. Many of these guys would have a hard time making the CFL, let alone the NFL. Overtime just exacerbates the possibility for "career-ending" injuries. Most of these guys were to be cut anyway; having to pay an injury settlement to someone who was going to be shown the door anyway just points a bad finger at the league. Except for the families for these sixth-stringers and Bengals fans desperate for a win of any kind, most fans have left the pre-season games well before they end. The games are meaningless, don't pick at the wound by making them longer too.
File last modified March 01, 2004
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