(03-25-2024, 10:13 AM)The Real Marty Wrote:

(03-24-2024, 03:44 PM)Eric1 Wrote: Ties are dumb. Every game should be played out until there's a winner imo.

The problem with that is if a game goes beyond 70 minutes, the players would be so beat up they might not even be competitive the next week.

I think the NFL likes overtime because it's dramatic, but beyond 10 minutes of overtime, it gets pretty rough on the players.

The argument of every game should be played out to find a winner flies in the face of the league's stated goal of player safety (yes, I doubt they care as much as they say).  If you're going to give each team a guaranteed possession in overtime, that also extends the game and flies in the face of player safety.  Fairness comes into question in the previous sudden death over time rules as the coin flip had a more significant impact on the final result.

I think the best thing for player safety in a 17 game season (likely eventually going to 18) is to do away with overtime during the regular season.  Coaches would more often (if not almost always)  go for 2 in scenarios where they just led their team to an otherwise game tying score.   Some already do this.  We did it against the Ravens 2 seasons ago.  An overtime period would not have added much to the excitement of that game.  It was damn exciting and probably one of the best games I've ever been to and I've been to a lot.  Had we not gotten the 2, I would not now be yearning to have gone to overtime.  Also, scenarios where a team is down 3 late and in FG range, the threat of no overtime might compel them to go for it on 4th down instead of kicking to tie.

Ties are not a bad thing.  The goal of the regular season is to determine playoff teams and seed them properly.  Ties factor in to that.  I don't think there would be an epidemic of ties by removing overtime altogether in the regular season.  I think there would be a lot of "go for the win" moves made late in games especially later in the season when playoff seeding becomes clearer.  It would be just as exciting, maybe moreso.  Obviously a winner must be determined in the playoffs so the current overtime rules for playoff games is adequate though I would keep giving possessions until the other team was not able to match or best the previous score.

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