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Column by DAVE ANDERSON New York Times
Why does the National Football League persist in waiting until it is embarrassed in a Super Bowl or in a playoff game by its unfair overtime procedure? Why does it persist in allowing a coin toss to determine, in nearly 30 percent of overtime games, which team wins simply because it won the coin toss?
The coin toss doesn't involve blocking or tackling. It's either heads or tails. At best the call by the visiting team's captain is based on superstition or a hunch. Force overtime after having played hard for 60 minutes, and if you're lucky, you win the toss and take the kickoff with a chance to win the game right away. If you're unlucky and the other team scores on its first possession, you never even get the ball.
That almost happened Sunday in the Giants-Jets overtime game, except that the Giants' place-kicker, Brett Conway, hooked a 39-yard field-goal attempt wide left. The Jets punted, the Giants punted, the Giants blocked the Jets' hurried 51-yard field-goal attempt, then the Giants won, 31-28, when Conway kicked a 29-yard field goal with four seconds remaining in the 15-minute overtime.
Though the Jets lost the coin toss, they eventually got the ball — twice. But that shouldn't obscure the problem: had Conway's 39-yard field-goal attempt sailed between the uprights, the Jets would have never had the ball and would have never had a chance to score. Because they happened to have lost the coin toss. Because the Giants, as the visiting team in their own stadium, called heads and it came up heads.
This isn't about the Giants having won or the Jets having lost.
It's also not about the silly college overtime system, in which the ball is placed at an opponent's 25-yard line.
It's about fairness. If the Giants had lost the coin toss and the Jets had won on their first possession, the coin-toss procedure would have been just as unfair.
Ever since the N.F.L. adopted overtime in 1974, some franchises have urged that each team should have at least one possession. After the Kansas City Chiefs lost two overtime games last season, one when the New England Patriots won the coin toss and marched to a 35-yard field goal, the Chiefs filed an official proposal saying that each team should have at least one possession.
The competition committee split, 4 to 4, in its recommendation, and the owners' vote was seven short of the necessary 75 percent for adoption at the annual league meeting; the count was 17 to 14 in favor with one abstention.
Of the 355 overtime games since 1974, only 16 have ended in ties. In 100 of those 355 games, the team that won the coin toss also won on its first drive, meaning the team that lost the coin toss never had the ball. That's 100 too many.
Of the 17 postseason overtime games, 3 were won on a team's first possession after winning the coin toss. That's three too many.
But none of those three games were under the demanding microscope of a Super Bowl or even a conference championship, when the losing team's outcry would be loudest. With such an unfair overtime procedure, it's an unfair accident just waiting to happen.
The N.F.L. persists in waiting as the playoff race shapes up with only 3 of last season's 12 postseason teams on track to get there again — the Indianapolis Colts (7-1), the Tennessee Titans (6-2) and the Philadelphia Eagles (5-3).
On the bubble at 4-4 are the reigning Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Giants and the Green Bay Packers.
All but eliminated are the Atlanta Falcons (1-7 without quarterback Michael Vick), the defending American Football Conference champion Oakland Raiders (2-6), the Jets (2-6) and the Pittsburgh Steelers (2-6). The Cleveland Browns (3-5) and the San Francisco 49ers (4-5) are struggling.
The Raiders have fallen the furthest, especially with cornerback Charles Woodson having charged that the team is falling apart because Coach Bill Callahan is too stubborn to accept suggestions. If some of those suggestions were from Al Davis, Callahan won't be coaching the Raiders next season.
The surprise playoff contender is the Dallas Cowboys (6-2), but Coach Bill Parcells is about to learn the true measure of his team. After Sunday's home game against the Buffalo Bills (4-4), the Cowboys have successive tests: at A.F.C. East leader New England (where he coached a previous reclamation project); at home against Carolina (6-2) and Miami (5-3); and at Philadelphia.
If the Eagles keep rolling, the wild card in the National Football Conference could well boil down to the Giants-Cowboys game at Texas Stadium on Dec. 21, if not to the Giants' season finale with visiting Carolina.
Meanwhile, the Kansas City Chiefs (8-0) have a real chance to be the N.F.L.'s first 16-0 regular-season team. The 1972 Dolphins were 14-0 in the regular before stretching it to 17-0 with a victory in Super Bowl VII. But no matter how the Chiefs finish, they should campaign for another vote on their proposal to give each team at least one possession in overtime.
What's fair is fair.
Why does the National Football League persist in waiting until it is embarrassed in a Super Bowl or in a playoff game by its unfair overtime procedure? Why does it persist in allowing a coin toss to determine, in nearly 30 percent of overtime games, which team wins simply because it won the coin toss?
The coin toss doesn't involve blocking or tackling. It's either heads or tails. At best the call by the visiting team's captain is based on superstition or a hunch. Force overtime after having played hard for 60 minutes, and if you're lucky, you win the toss and take the kickoff with a chance to win the game right away. If you're unlucky and the other team scores on its first possession, you never even get the ball.
That almost happened Sunday in the Giants-Jets overtime game, except that the Giants' place-kicker, Brett Conway, hooked a 39-yard field-goal attempt wide left. The Jets punted, the Giants punted, the Giants blocked the Jets' hurried 51-yard field-goal attempt, then the Giants won, 31-28, when Conway kicked a 29-yard field goal with four seconds remaining in the 15-minute overtime.
Though the Jets lost the coin toss, they eventually got the ball — twice. But that shouldn't obscure the problem: had Conway's 39-yard field-goal attempt sailed between the uprights, the Jets would have never had the ball and would have never had a chance to score. Because they happened to have lost the coin toss. Because the Giants, as the visiting team in their own stadium, called heads and it came up heads.
This isn't about the Giants having won or the Jets having lost.
It's also not about the silly college overtime system, in which the ball is placed at an opponent's 25-yard line.
It's about fairness. If the Giants had lost the coin toss and the Jets had won on their first possession, the coin-toss procedure would have been just as unfair.
Ever since the N.F.L. adopted overtime in 1974, some franchises have urged that each team should have at least one possession. After the Kansas City Chiefs lost two overtime games last season, one when the New England Patriots won the coin toss and marched to a 35-yard field goal, the Chiefs filed an official proposal saying that each team should have at least one possession.
The competition committee split, 4 to 4, in its recommendation, and the owners' vote was seven short of the necessary 75 percent for adoption at the annual league meeting; the count was 17 to 14 in favor with one abstention.
Of the 355 overtime games since 1974, only 16 have ended in ties. In 100 of those 355 games, the team that won the coin toss also won on its first drive, meaning the team that lost the coin toss never had the ball. That's 100 too many.
Of the 17 postseason overtime games, 3 were won on a team's first possession after winning the coin toss. That's three too many.
But none of those three games were under the demanding microscope of a Super Bowl or even a conference championship, when the losing team's outcry would be loudest. With such an unfair overtime procedure, it's an unfair accident just waiting to happen.
The N.F.L. persists in waiting as the playoff race shapes up with only 3 of last season's 12 postseason teams on track to get there again — the Indianapolis Colts (7-1), the Tennessee Titans (6-2) and the Philadelphia Eagles (5-3).
On the bubble at 4-4 are the reigning Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Giants and the Green Bay Packers.
All but eliminated are the Atlanta Falcons (1-7 without quarterback Michael Vick), the defending American Football Conference champion Oakland Raiders (2-6), the Jets (2-6) and the Pittsburgh Steelers (2-6). The Cleveland Browns (3-5) and the San Francisco 49ers (4-5) are struggling.
The Raiders have fallen the furthest, especially with cornerback Charles Woodson having charged that the team is falling apart because Coach Bill Callahan is too stubborn to accept suggestions. If some of those suggestions were from Al Davis, Callahan won't be coaching the Raiders next season.
The surprise playoff contender is the Dallas Cowboys (6-2), but Coach Bill Parcells is about to learn the true measure of his team. After Sunday's home game against the Buffalo Bills (4-4), the Cowboys have successive tests: at A.F.C. East leader New England (where he coached a previous reclamation project); at home against Carolina (6-2) and Miami (5-3); and at Philadelphia.
If the Eagles keep rolling, the wild card in the National Football Conference could well boil down to the Giants-Cowboys game at Texas Stadium on Dec. 21, if not to the Giants' season finale with visiting Carolina.
Meanwhile, the Kansas City Chiefs (8-0) have a real chance to be the N.F.L.'s first 16-0 regular-season team. The 1972 Dolphins were 14-0 in the regular before stretching it to 17-0 with a victory in Super Bowl VII. But no matter how the Chiefs finish, they should campaign for another vote on their proposal to give each team at least one possession in overtime.
What's fair is fair.