We do overtime right up north
NFL can take a page from the CFL for once and adopt playing two possessions in case of a tie
We Canadians know how to do overtime football.
Not to lord this over our American cousins, or to be too insensitive about a fresh wound suffered by pigskin loyalists down in Buffalo, but here in the Great White North we helpfully once again demonstrated how football OT should work just last month.
Remember the 108th Grey Cup game in Hamilton? It went to OT tied 25-25. The Winnipeg Blue Bombers scored a touchdown, then converted on the mandatory twopoint play to pull ahead 33-25. The hometown Tiger-Cats got a chance to match that, but quarterback Jeremiah Masoli’s pass was intercepted by Bombers linebacker Kyrie Wilson and the game ended.
Winnipeg celebrated, Hamilton mourned and nobody complained that the game-deciding format was unfair.
Angry NFL observers, by comparison, are taking all kinds of potshots at that league’s format today, and only some of them are massively disappointed Bills fans after their team lost a stunning classic to Kansas City on Sunday night.
“Just for the record, I hate the overtime rules,” tweeted respected NFL writer Peter King. “Both teams should have a chance to possess the ball in overtime.”
The fact the Chiefs, by simply winning a coin toss, got to have the only possession of overtime rankled many, including in other sports.
“Worst overtime format in sports!” tweeted New York Rangers forward Ryan Strome.
That this is the most heated gridiron debate north and south of the U.S.-Canada border after what might have been the greatest NFL playoff weekend in history, with four extraordinary games all coming down to the final play, is a shame.
Today, we could have been talking about the future of anti-vaxxer Aaron Rodgers and ageless Tom Brady; or San Francisco’s two blocked kicks that upset the Packers; or the clutch kicking of Cincinnati rookie Evan McPherson; or the fact the Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers didn’t think covering the NFL’s best receiver, Cooper Kupp, was an absolute necessity late in their loss to the Rams.
Even the Bills-Chiefs discussion really should be about Josh Allen’s quite incredible two-point collaboration with Stefon Diggs in the final minute of regulation. Or about Patrick Mahomes and his wonderful sportsmanship in running around the field in the post-game mayhem at Arrowhead Stadium looking to console Allen after throwing the winning touchdown to Travis Kelce.
“He throws the winning touchdown and comes right over to find me,” said Allen. “To be in that situation and do that was pretty cool of him.”
Instead, in a league that has emphasized offence more and more in recent years, helping to grow the average team value to more than $3.5 billion (U.S.), there’s a rather rancorous discussion going on about NFL overtime rules that is overshadowing the entire weekend. Here’s the difference between the NFL and CFL:
■ In the NFL there is a coin toss, and the away team gets to call heads or tails. If the first team to possess the ball — the coin toss winner always elects to receive — scores a touchdown, then the game is over. Otherwise, the next team to score is the winner.
■ CFL overtime rules, by contrast, are very similar to those in U.S. college and Canadian university football. Each team has at least one possession that starts on the opposition’s 35-yard line. Once the first team with possession has either scored or turned the ball over, the opposing team gets a chance from the 35-yard line. Touchdowns in these overtime periods must be followed by a two-point conversion. If it is tied after the first overtime, up to two more periods follow.
The Canadian format seems clearly superior and creates more entertaining scenarios, noteworthy at a time when concerned CFL owners in search of more customers are considering rule changes that might involve the three-down game becoming closer to the American four-down brand.
After Sunday’s defeat, meanwhile, Allen graciously said he wasn’t bitter.
“The rules are what they are and I can’t complain about that. If it was the other way around, we’d be celebrating too,” he said.
Interestingly, it was the Chiefs who proposed a change to the system in 2019 after losing an overtime playoff game to New England. If the Kansas City proposal had been adopted, both the Chiefs and Bills would have had a possession in overtime on Sunday. But the Chiefs’ idea was voted down.
The truly unfortunate part is that if the NFL had changed the rules, as per the Kansas City plan or copied the CFL format, it would probably have made what some are calling the best NFL playoff game ever played even better.
Theoretically, the Chiefs would have had to go for a two-point conversion after Kelce’s score. Then, given that Allen had thrown two touchdown passes in the final two minutes of the fourth quarter, it’s entirely possible he would have marched the Bills downfield for another major. Then Buffalo would have had to go for two points. By that point, Jim Nantz would have run out of superlatives describing the game on television.
Other than potentially making the game longer, there’s no downside to revising the NFL’s overtime rules.
So change the rules, O Mighty NFL. The CFL has helpfully shown you the way.
No charge.