Pigskin Dispatch - The NFL Overtime Dilemma and how to fix it.

there's been quite a bit of talk lately on how the best way to construct an overtime session that is fair to both teams in the nfl to decide a winner when the games are tied at the end of regulation we're going to talk about that ways to improve it and some looks at the other levels of football all coming up in just a moment this is the pigskin daily history dispatch a podcast that covers the anniversaries of american football events throughout history on a day-to-day basis your host darren hayes is podcasting from america's north shore to bring you the memories of the gridiron one day at a time so as we come out of the tunnel of the sports history network let's take the field and go no huddle through the portal of positive gridiron history with pigskindispatch.com [Applause] this podcast is part of the sports history network your headquarters for the yesteryear of your favorite sport you can learn more at sportshistorynetwork.com hello my football friends this is darren hayes of pigskindispatch.com welcome once again to the pig pen your portal deposit of football history and what could be more positive than two teams playing equal football tied at the end of regulation well we're gonna get to that in a second but before we do i want to tell you about something else very positive the very positive vibe and feedback i'm getting from our new newsletter from pig pen sports that we cover everything on pig skin dispatch everything on jersey dispatch everything on the sports jersey dispatch podcast and pigskin dispatch podcast as well as our friends over at sports history network for bringing a whole bunch of great things and don't forget horrible mulligan anything new happening there too with that great podcast we have going on but we take all of that and put it into one newsletter that you get in your email inbox each and every day if you sign up for the subscription it's free all you have to do is put your name in put your email address in and you can unsubscribe at any time but i think you're going to love it about 6 30 a.m eastern every single day in your email inbox you'll get the pigpen sports newsletter of the day and like i said it's going to have everything that's going on on all the great websites that you love on sports history so make sure you check that out you can sign up by looking at the link in the show notes of this podcast or on pigskindispatch.com or jerseydispatch.com under the email sign up form i think you're going to love it now let's get to our topic of the day and it's going to be a real hot topic this is uh airing brand new on tuesday uh march 29th and it's a big day in the nfl at the nfl owners meetings down in west palm beach uh florida where they're going to be talking about a plethora of things but none bigger than the big you know elephant in the room and that's overtime rule revision for the nfl and you know let's study a little bit about that rule and we're going to talk about overtime rules and i'm going to tell you from an officiating standpoint what the rules are remember i used to be a zebra so not in the nfl but at high school and i'm gonna tell you about that level two so let's look at the 2021 overtime rules the way they currently are the way they just got done playing the football season we just got done watching a couple months ago well the 2021 nfl rulebook says that in the regular season there should be a maximum of one 10 minute period even if the second team has not yet had the opportunity to possess a ball or if its initial possession has not ended if the score is tied at the end of the period the game shall result in a tie the playoffs they're going to have a 15-minute overtime session or the second team's initial possession is not ended in yada yada so basically what they're saying is regular season 10 minute period and if one team holds onto the ball for that whole 10 minutes and doesn't score well it's a tie at the end of that in the playoffs one 15 minute session and if the second team's initial possession is not ended overtime period will begin and the play will continue regardless of how many 15 minute periods are necessary they'll just keep playing playing playing until there is a winner but the element of sudden death is definitely involved in this the nfl loves the sudden death it started back in the early 50s i think like 1952 when they were having a playoff play end game to see who would make the playoffs didn't happen in that game that they intended it for ended up happening a season or two later you can read about that a great article by our friend timothy p brown over on his uh website fields of friendly strife he wrote a great article on overtime games best of all time uh in his article back in january of 2022. it's excellent i have a link to it on pigskindispatch.com for this overtime rules thing down in the credits uh make sure you check that link out because it is a absolutely fantastic article that tim wrote and it goes back into some really great games but let's get back to this modern overtime so we i guess the poster child of why this is such a popular topic at this owners meeting is you know we had some really close games in the playoffs it was probably the best nfl playoffs ever it was the expanded format there was more teams than ever but the best gameplay the most evenly matched from the divisional round to the championship weekend to the super bowl just excellent playoff wild car weekend yeah not so much especially if you're a steelers fan but you know those those later rounds just fantastic so one game in particular though that bill's chief divisional game uh played in january 2022 and it was just uh the last two minutes were probably the most fantastic minute 54 that maybe we've ever seen in nfl playoff history you know they had was a 25 points scored in less than two minutes at the end of a nfl game and an nfl divisional playoff game of two very good teams let's recap what happened here just to remind you so we have just a two minute warning it's chiefs 26 bills 22 and 154 left in the fourth quarter buffalo scores after a seven minute and one second drive 17 plays in all dramatic fourth and 13. uh quarterback josh allen the bills go steps back finds gabriel davis it's the first touchdown and first lead of not the first touchdown but the first lead by buffalo since the the first quarter since early in the game so now bills are up 29-26 102 left on the clock kansas city strikes as quarterback patrick mahomes finds speedster tiger kill on a yard touchdown toss to complete a five play 75 yard drive in just 52 seconds so now it is the chiefs 33 bills 29 and with just 13 seconds left on the clock allen again finds davis to cap off a five-play 75-yard drive and it sure feels like this game is over with 13 seconds left you know there's no way that kansas city can get down the field and you know they're down by three now 36-33 no way they're going to come back and tie this game up to take it to overtime well just like they say on the the knife commercials but wait there's more and there was more the chiefs in those 13 seconds brilliant drive uh get within field goal range with zeros on the clock the chiefs uh kicker harrison butker nails a 49-yard field goal to tie the game and the regulation tie game overtime rules we just talked about what those overtime rules are so in overtime the chiefs get the ball they go on a torrid 75-yard drive score a touchdown don't allow the bills josh allen those offense to even see the field in the extra stanza chiefs move on in the playoffs empty feeling for fans all over the place i know bill's mafia you're going crazy you don't want to hear about this nightmare again but the rest of us that really had no rooting interest in the game just wanted to see good football and we did and we felt like we were robbed when we didn't get to see the bills be able to come back and respond to that you know these two teams these offenses just went at it like you know prize fighters in the middle of the ring and 15th round and it's all on the line you know punch for punch they're going at each other these two great brilliant young quarterbacks great wide receivers you know the offensive coordinator scheming up the plays and just taking advantage wherever they can it was absolutely magnificent and in overtime chiefs drive they score game over what we were robbed we were robbed and the nfl knows that the owners meeting knows that and they know they have to reform but what do they do well i guess before we lay out on a table some of the possibilities let's look at what some of the other levels of football do let's start off with the ncaa now starting in the 2021 season the ncaa brass approved a change to the overtime rules teams will be required to run a two-point conversion play after a touchdown when the game reaches a second overtime period but what's their overtime period well they take each team gets a series from the opposition's 25-yard line they can get a first down they get it you know they get a new series of downs they can do that twice if they you know have 25 yards to get to the goal line and you know when their series is over they've either scored a touchdown they scored uh safety i saw a field goal uh the other team has taken over on downs says gain possession of a loose ball score to safety you know there's things that could happen there then the other team gets the chance of the ball unless they scored a defensive score either touchdown or safety now back uh this started back in 1995 when they did these overtime rules and it's really an exciting a game now this past season i think we had the penn state iowa game saw the full application of this new rule going to the two-point plays after uh the fifth overtime period and you know they just started shelling out these two-point scores it was actually kind of kind of crazy but the best thing about it that's better than the what the nfl is doing is both offenses get the same opportunity on the field you know the defenses can shut them down but at least they both have an opportunity to be first and ten from the opposition's 25-yard line they both get a chance in the overtime session that's what makes it fair it's kind of an exciting thing to watch now if you want real excitement you got to go to the level that i officiated at the national federation of high school sports nfhs high school level for the high school game it's very similar to the college game but you have the ball each team first and goal from the opposition's 10 yard line and they each have a chance that you know that series and makes for some high drama in this extra session like the ncaa rules the nfhs has the element of fairness as both teams have equal opportunity from their opposition's 10-yard line to score just uh you know it makes it very fair i'm not saying the nfl should do that i'm not saying they should do the high school or the college rule but i think that both offenses should have opportunity to do it now a few years back probably i guess 10 now 15 years ago they did go instead of some straight up sudden death if the first team that gets the ball goes down and kicks a field goal while the other team gets a chance to go have their offense come on the field and either tie that field goal or better it with a touchdown okay it was a step in the right direction but it just sort of stopped there but like the chiefs the against the bills if the that first team scores a touchdown this game over no opportunity for the other side i don't know if i like that so what are some of the op the uh alternatives that they could do and if they don't want to do the high school or the college level well they could keep playing until somebody scores you know let them both have at least one series if it's still tied just keep playing until you know get to that end of that 10 minute in regular season or 15 minutes and keep playing you know that's one way to do it um they could you know let them have the current just like the current rules but maybe have each of them have a possession you know so what if kansas city scored that touchdown if can buffalo come out and match scoring that touchdown or if they fall short well it's game over then now we know they both had equal opportunity i think eventually that's the direction that the nfl is going to go i think that is probably the best way you don't want these nfl teams to have started at the opposition's 25 yard line you don't want them starting at the 10-yard line but let them have a kick free kick let them get the ball let them have a drive and i think that's the fairest way and i hope and i think that that is what the nfl is going to do and it may even be this weekend this week that they make that decision and we may say that in the 2022-2023 season wouldn't that be interesting let's keep our fingers crossed and uh keep watching the news that's my take on overtime and i think it could be much better in the nfl because boy we really felt like like i said we felt like we were cheated in that chief's bills game as a fan and i think the nfl knows that what better way to improve the product you have by just tweaking it just one little rule and that's on overtime hope you enjoyed this show uh that's a little bit of history uh but some great uh things on football rules hope you enjoyed it give us your feedback pigskin dispatch at gmail.com let me know what you think and until tomorrow everybody have a great great iron day that's all the football history we have today folks join us back tomorrow for more of your football history we invite you to check out our website pigskindispatch.com not only to see the daily football history but to experience positive football with our many articles on the good people of the game as well as our own football comic strip cleat marks comics pigskin dispatch.com is also on social media outlets facebook twitter instagram and don't forget the 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