All NFL rules can be found on operations.nfl.com, from where we sourced the following information. According to the rulebook:
“Each team must possess, or have the opportunity to possess, the ball. The exception: if the team that gets the ball first scores a touchdown on the opening possession”
While remaining objective, any individual will observe a failure to provide each team in such a scenario with an equal chance to win, meaning that the chance of emerging victorious is placed in the luck of a coin toss. Through 11 games, teams that win the coin toss are 10-1. This has proved to be very problematic, particularly in the NFL divisional round game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills.
You’re Josh Allen. With two minutes in the game, you’re trailing by five, so you need to touch that endzone to have a chance. You do so on 4th and 13 after Gabriel Davis knocks the CB guarding him to the ground with a clean double step. You convert the 2-PTC and lead by a Field Goal… what can go wrong? Everything.Just as you sip on that winners Gatorade you notice Tyreek Hill point two fingers at your guys as he zips in the one place you couldn’t afford to let him get into: the endzone. The crowd erupts and you turn towards the massive oval that in Kansas City is an iconic mega board. It reads: 57 seconds. Breathe in… out… you’re back on the field with 76,000 roaring fans cheering against you. But you’re Josh Allen, what can’t you do? Left is covered, so is the right. But Davis finds a way to get his hands up and signal for the pass, which you deliver to mark a three-point advantage with 13 seconds left. But the story repeats itself and your rival makes it back for a FG… Overtime. The entire season is put on one moment, which ironically enough isn’t even a play, it’s a coin toss.
Being the visitor, the officiating crew asks you for your choice of coin side, to which you confidently respond “tails”. Three seconds later you’re looking at your defence telling them to play the hardest ball they have ever played: they go out first.
We know how this story ends. While the chances of Buffalo winning could be debated, it is indisputable that the existence of the odd rule that we have stated above has taken away their chance to emerge victorious. Should they, however, be changed?
Part of the reason for the introduction of this rule was player safety. On 24th November 2018, CFB saw one of the greatest games go down to a 7th overtime, leading to a TAMU win over LSU counting at 74-72. While being regarded by many as the best game in college football in recent history, it also sparked major controversy over the format of OT’s, with health experts stating that players must not be subject to games of such lengths. One reason for this is the risk of fatigue affecting a player’s ability to play the game safely. A worn out defensive player, for example, may be too fatigued to perform a proper tackle, thus risking head to head or low collisions, both having the ability to affect individuals for the rest of their lives.