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It's Time To Give Boot To OT Kickoffs

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By IRA KAUFMAN

ikaufman@tampatrib.com

Published: March 22, 2009

DANA POINT, Calif. - Here at Tranquility Base, NFL owners are gathering for their annual three-day meeting to celebrate all that is right with America's Game.

Not so fast, people.

Besides an impending labor dispute, there's an on-field issue that requires immediate attention.

Yes, we're talking about the overtime coin toss.

What was once a slight competitive advantage has developed into a substantial winning edge, and the NFL needs to do something about a potentially embarrassing situation.

Last season, 16 NFL games were deadlocked at the end of 60 minutes. Tossing out the Eagles-Bengals tie, 11 of the 15 overtime victors just happened to win the coin toss.

Even more ominously, half of the 16 overtime sessions ended on the first possession.

It shouldn't require the spectacle of a one-possession overtime on a Super Bowl stage to force the league's hand.

The numbers don't lie.

The league's average of 44 points per game in 2008 marks the most prolific scoring rate since 1970. Kickers have never been more accurate, converting field-goal attempts at an 84.5 percent clip.

Fans like offense, and the NFL has responded in kind with a long-running series of rule changes designed to aid scoring.

We are told by the Competition Committee that players and clubs like the current overtime format because it does a good job of minimizing ties and maximizing excitement.

That's not good enough.

Since the OT system was adopted in 1974, 130 games have ended without teams posting at least one possession apiece.

"It's not as though the coin flip decides the game," committee co-chairman Rich McKay said. "Everybody knows the rules and everybody does have an opportunity to play defense."

But playing defense has never been more challenging in the NFL, where one dubious pass interference call can determine the overtime outcome while a Tom Brady or a Peyton Manning stews on the sideline, denied the opportunity to stand under center.

The biggest culprit here is the overtime kickoff.

In the eight overtime games last season that ended on the first possession, the average starting position was the 26-yard line.

For the other eight overtime matchups, the average starting position on first possession was the 19-yard line.

NFL executives are understandably cautious about tweaking overtime and creating a markedly different set of rules, but let's be honest - overtime is different by its very nature.

If the fourth quarter of a tie game ends with the Bucs in possession at midfield, overtime doesn't resume with center Jeff Faine snapping from the 50.

The least-intrusive proposal makes the most sense. Eliminate overtime kickoffs, place the ball at the 20 and keep the sudden-death format.

Any defense that gives up a 55-yard drive and loses on the first OT possession shouldn't whine.

It's time for NFL owners to act on overtime. Don't wait for a Super Bowl fiasco.

Give OT kickoffs the boot.

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