There's more at the link, including these 3 suggested changes and explanations for them:The ostensible purpose of NFL overtime is 1) to declare a winner and avoid a tie and 2) to do so quickly. If ties were acceptable, I assume the league would not bother to even have overtime.
In recent years, as offenses gradually gained an ever stronger upper hand over defenses, it became clear that the former sudden-death format gave too much advantage to the winner of a trivial coin flip. We saw time and time again as a team won the coin toss, got a decent kickoff return, earned a couple of first downs, and kicked a long field goal without even a whimper from the unlucky loser of the coin-flipping contest. Something needed to be done.
And, unfortunately, “something” was done. The current format is a mess because its effects are contrary to both stated purposes of overtime. It increases the chances of a tie — like the one we saw on Sunday between the Packers and Vikings — while prolonging the overtime period.
1. Restore pure sudden-death rules.
2. Move the starting point following a touchback to the 15-yard line.
3. Eliminate the arbitrary coin toss and give the home team the option to receive.
What I'd really like to see is a rules adjustment that favors offense less. I think that would solve the issue people had with the old sudden death format and improve the game as a whole. Let defenders play defense again!
