Heart-ache: NFL abandons sudden death rule for postseason

On the very day that O-Care is signed, too. I don’t know my country anymore.

• Both teams must have the opportunity to possess the ball once during the extra period, unless the team that receives the opening kickoff scores a touchdown on its initial possession, in which case it is the winner.

• If the team that possesses the ball first scores a field goal on its initial possession, the other team shall have the opportunity to possess the ball. If [that team] scores a touchdown on its possession, it is the winner. If the score is tied after [both teams have a] possession, the team next scoring by any method shall be the winner.

• If the score is tied at the end of a 15-minute overtime period, or if [the overtime period's] initial possession has not ended, another overtime period will begin, and play will continue until a score is made, regardless of how many 15-minute periods are necessary.

The reasoning is that it’s become too easy to win the game on the first possession of overtime thanks to the fact that they moved the kickoff back from the 35 to the 30-yard line in 1994. (Er, why don’t they just move the kickoff line up instead?) At first blush, I thought they were replicating the college rules where each team gets the ball until one scores and the other fails to answer — which would be sweet. Ever seen the highlights of one of those six-overtime 61-60 Division I shootouts on SportsCenter? Imagine that in the Super Bowl.

But no: Read the new rules again. The team that receives the overtime kickoff can win the game with a touchdown right away, under standard sudden death rules. Only if they’re stopped and forced to kick a field goal does the other team get the ball. The point, I guess, is that sudden-death FGs on the opening drive are quick and easy, but if that’s the case, then why let the game ever end on a field goal? Under this half-baked scheme, if I go for three on the first drive and you come back with three yourself, I can then win the game — in sudden death — with another field goal of my own. Why? If the problem is that the kickoffs are producing field position that makes winning FGs too likely, there’s nothing here that cures that problem; all it does is push it forward by one possession, after each team has kicked a field goal on its opening drive. Stupid.

What this really does is create the following strategic dilemma: If you take the opening kickoff, kick a field goal, then kick off to me and I drive down to your 10-yard line, say, what do I do on fourth down? Kick to tie the game and send it into sudden death, where the odds say you’ll win because you’ll get the ball next, or do I go for the TD to try to end the game right there? Let’s poll it!

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