While this issue doesn’t garner much attention, it comes up after games such as when the Carolina Panthers and Cincinnati Bengals end in a 37-37 tie on October 12, 2014.
I’ve chronicled this over and over again, but football is probably the most dangerous sport and some will argue that adding another sudden death overtime period will increase the chances that participants will get injured more seriously.
Some address this by looking at other sports tie game policies.
https://twitter.com/shaneryanhere/status/404840248221655040
After the 2004-2005 professional hockey lockout, the NHL did away with ties meaning that every game in the regular season must have a winner.
In 2012, the NFL made an adjustment in the overtime rules that said that field goals on the first possession of the extra session would not end the game. Since this rule change, there has been an average of one game that ends in a tie and some believe that is a troubling trend.
Some will argue that the NFL should do something similar to what college football does. Each team is guaranteed a possession and each teams possession begins at the 25-yard line or further back if there is an offensive penalty. If I were in charge of this, I would make one revision and that is there would be kickoffs to begin overtime and there is no clock in overtime in the college ranks.
In recent seasons, there have been games that ended in ties between divisional rivals that were just more than one game. In the 2013 season, the Green Bay Packers went 8-7-1 and played the Chicago Bears in the final game of the regular season for the rights to A. who would win the NFC North and a ticket to the playoffs. Green Bay won that game in the final minute and their one tie came against the Minnesota Vikings in week 12.
In the 2012 season, the San Francisco 49ers went 11-4-1 and won the NFC West over 11-5 Seattle thanks to a 24-24 tie against the St. Louis Rams in week 10.
I mentioned earlier that 10 years ago, the NHL got rid of ties and the other two major sports do not have games in the regular season that are eligible to end in ties. What is also noteworthy is that 3 of the 4 major sports have clocks and while they are physical in different ways, athletes past and present will tell you that their respective sport can take its toll physically over a period of time. That is why the NFL should get rid of ties but not with another 15 minute quarter.
I would be open to an idea similar to what the NHL does in overtime and considering there will be 3-on-3 overtime in the NHL starting in October. In a quarterback driven league, there would be pressure to put the QB in a situation to find his best receivers maybe a 7-on-7 overtime period. I am on the fence with this to be perfectly honest.
There are no quick fixes to this topic that are not on the table and I think the NFL should go in the direction that college football does overtime games with a couple revisions. Instead of starting a possession on the 25-yard line, play the overtime on one half of the field. In College Football when the game gets to a third OT, a team who scores a TD must go for two, in the NFL, I would make it the second OT session. Instead of putting the ball on a tee, I would have the team’s kicker do a free kick from his own end-zone and if the ball goes on the other side of the 50, it is an automatic touch-back and goes to mid-field.
At the same time, I don’t see any urgency to change this rule and unless we see more than one game on average per season ending in a tie, I don’t see an issue like this getting any traction.
ryanhackman1026 