The NFL Overtime Situation

As you can see, I only blogged 26 times this last month and honestly, I am not apologizing for the lack of posting because I like putting up more meaningful posts about things instead of writing a couple paragraphs about something.  It's meaningless for me to give you an opinion about something that doesnt need to be talked about.  Lucky for you, I am getting three done in the next couple days. 

If you didn't know, Eau Claire has a little thing called Picklefest where a bar opens at 9 am on Saturday morning and I would say 200-300 students get up to get free t-shirts plus get really drunk.  Needless to say, I was one of them and missed the story about NFL thinking about changing their overtime rules in the playoffs.  I cannot say I am fan of the new developments.

Here is the basically proposed rule, "If the first team doesn't score a touchdown, then the other team gets a chance to score a touchdown." Thus, whoever gets the first touchdown wins unless the FG team stops the opposing team from getting a TD.  Meh. 

People are just upset that the Minnesota Vikings and their old man Brett Favre didn't get a chance to beat the Saints. The NFL and their players are already having money issues, you do not think players are going to speak out about having to play a possible extra 15 minutes to decide who wins the game?  I think that makes the next week game in the playoffs vulnerable because they are beaten down from the game before due to playing the an extra period possibly.  It's comparable to the unreal phenomenon that happened to a bunch of us at 223 playing NBA Jam for the Super Nintendo.

My roommate Eric beat my other roommate Brett in a physical game of the Indiana Pacers-Chicago Bulls where Brett literally beat the shit out of Reggie Miller through the whole game yet Eric won the game by one. The next game, Eric's injury status stayed at the same level the whole time and Miller wasn't at his best leading for him to lose to Fant.  Now the next game, I played Fant where his team was injured beyond belief from the previous game.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen I compared the NFL playoff overtime situation to NBA Jam.  But it's true, I mean if an NFL team has to play just a slugfest the week before and have to back in action likely against a better team the following the week. I am willing to bet if this rule changes and when this happens, that overtime-winning team will lose their next game.  I just feel an extra 15 minutes will destruct the players especially the offensive/defensive line who obviously aren't as physical fit. 

Three big times what-ifs if these happened with the new overtime rules...
1.) What if two teams are both defensive juggernauts are playing each other, the game goes to OT where it's 9-9.  Barely, any offensive going on, are they just going to trade field goals or just wait until one of the defense's stops the opposing team.

2.) What if say New Orleans-Green Bay are playing in an intense divisional overtime game and field goals are being traded and then Drew Brees breaks his ankle during the game?  The team then has a big time beef and the Saints are saying this should have never happened to our quarterback, blah blah. 

3.) Not really a what if but I will give you this, it makes the overtime ten times more intense with much more coaching decisions. Do you go for the field goal on the first possession or go for the throat?  It does make for more storylines, I will give you that.

But never have I been over-the-top about this topic like some bloggers have in the recent past complaining about overtime rules. I mean I think it's stupid that some teams do not get the ball in overtime period at least giving them a chance, but at the same time, shouldn't your defense be good enough to stop the offense?  The stat being thrown around is that the team who won the toss only won 60% of the time, to me that isn't enough evidence to fix something.  

-Charlie.