Not the fake field goal to get momentum back on the Seahawks’ side. Not the Packers’ special teams player Brandon Bostick’s drop on the onside kick. Not the two-point conversion to push Seattle’s lead to three. Not even quarterback Russell Wilson’s 35-yard walk-off touchdown pass was the biggest decision of Sunday’s NFC Championship game.
Unfortunately for football fans everywhere (excluding those wearing blue and bright green), the biggest call of the game was the Packers’ decision to call tails in overtime.
Despite the adage that “tails never fails,” it did. The coin toss came up heads, and the Packers never got a chance to win the game. The Seahawks used six plays to go 87 yards and win the game with Wilson’s touchdown.
All because the NFL allows a coin toss to determine a championship.
After 60 minutes of great football, chance decided a Super Bowl berth. Imagine if the MLB had a coin toss in the American League Championship Series to determine who batted first and the first team to score won. Imagine the same in the NBA or the FIFA World Cup.
The NFL’s current overtime rule states, “Each team must possess or have the opportunity to possess the ball unless the team that has the ball first scores a touchdown on its initial possession.”
If the team who receives the ball doesn’t score a touchdown on its first possession, it becomes sudden death. In the regular season, this system makes sense. Regular season games don’t need to go on forever.
But ending a game in the playoffs after one possession is unfair to the other team and to the fans.
The NFL is the best league in American sports because it puts incredible athletes in position to make unbelievable plays to decide games.
Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, a top MVP candidate, stood on the sideline and watched the entire overtime period on Sunday.
That’s not what this league is about. The best player on the field deserved his chance to respond, and it’s a shame he didn’t get it.
Whether Rodgers would have led the Packers on a game-tying drive or not is up for debate, but it shouldn’t be. The playoff overtime rule needs to change to give the other team and America its answer.
The three solutions that make the most sense are to allow the other team a possession even if the other team scores, to play an abbreviated quarter if not a full overtime or shift to a variation of the NCAA’s overtime rules.
Giving the other team a chance to score wouldn’t be a major change to the current rules and is the most feasible option.
Playing a full quarter gives each team multiple chances with the ball but could make already long games even longer, although the possibility of extra commercial revenue could make NFL owners jump on this chance.
The most fan-friendly option might be to shift to a variation of the NCAA’s overtime rules. It would be a major change to the current system, but it would be the most fun to watch of all possible changes.
Rodgers and Wilson going back and forth scoring from the 25 or 35-yard line would make for must-watch TV and would keep the sudden death suspense factor the NFL currently enjoys.
While the change won’t fix Sunday’s game, it will continue to put a better product on the field and make an overtime period even more exciting
Brian Pellerin is a 20-year-old mass communication junior from Kenner, Louisiana. You can reach him on Twitter
@Pellerin_TDR.