Sean Payton and thoughts on overtime

Here's a quote from Sean Payton:

"I hate it," Payton, speaking from the annual NFC Coaches breakfast, told me on Sirius NFL Radio. "I'm not a big fan of the rule that was implemented. I'm probably going to have to spend a half-hour explaining it to my wife."


Well allow me to help, Sean. If you receive the ball first in OT and kick a field goal, the other team will have an opportunity to possess the ball. If you score a TD, or there's a defensive score, the game is over. And this only applies to the playoffs.

Wow, that was hard.

I can understand why coaches would be against changes to the overtime format. It opens up a whole new avenue of second-guessing and criticism, and coaches already put up with a ton of that. But this is a fantastic new overtime format that finally, THANKFULLY, devalues the coin flip.

I mean, honestly, how stupid is it that the flip of a coin can be such a determining factor? No other sport has this. In basketball, you get the opening tip and 5 minute OT session. In hockey, you have a faceoff. In baseball, each team bats in their half-inning. But in football we flip a coin, and if you lose, tough break, because you may not see the ball. What idiocy. It can still happen where a team loses the coin toss and never sees the ball, but that's only in the event they allow a TD, and I don't think anybody is going to cry for a team that allowed a TD in overtime.

But the manner in which the Saints won the NFC Championship Game was a disgrace, and I say that not as a Viking fan but as an NFL fan. The Saints put together a mighty 10 play, 40 yard drive that was heavily aided by a questionable (read: bullshit) pass interference call, they kicked a field goal and Minnesota never touched the ball. This new rule will finally incentivize teams to go for TDs in overtime, rather than settle for field goals. Frankly it's embarrassing how teams shut their offense down once they get in field goal range, but now that will no longer be a sensible option.

I've heard all of the arguments against changing the overtime format, and they suck. "Well you can still play defense." True, but if getting the ball first isn't an advantage, then why does everyone outside of Marty Morhninweg receive the ball when the win the coin toss? And even if you don't score in OT, you can still affect field position by, say, driving to the 50, punting the ball and downing it inside the 10. It's stupid that a coin toss should give one team such an advantage. "Not every OT game ends on the first possession, so don't fix what ain't broken." There are stats galore on how OT games end, and I'm not going to look them up now, but of course not EVERY overtime game ends the way the NFC Championship Game does. There are definitely games in which both teams possess the ball, sometimes numerous times. The point is not that the problems with the OT format were absolute; the problem was that the coin toss gave any team an advantage at all. Like I said, even if you didn't score you could affect field position. And if you win the coin toss, you're guaranteed at least an equal amount of possessions as your opponent, while your opponent is guaranteed nothing. All because of the flip of a coin.

I'm thankful that the NFL owners showed some foresight and eliminated the worst OT format in sports. I thought it would take a couple of years, and probably a Super Bowl to go to OT, before change would happen, but finally a team's season can't end because they lost a coin toss, gave up a 40 yard drive and then a field goal. No more getting into field goal range and shutting down your offense. Now we just need to implement this for the regular season, but I'm doubtful that will happen because the networks probably have no interest in elongated overtime sessions that run into their 3 o'clock games. Oh well; at least the playoffs were fixed, and those are the games that matter most.