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By uxley11, Section NFL
I felt this story had to be written after I watched the Eagles and Giants compete at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. I watched the overtime period of this game and even though it was a great defensive battle it should not have ended the way it did. The final score in case you didn't watch it or see the post-game highlights was 30-24 in favor of the Giants. This was the result of the Philadelphia defense being on the field for just under ten minutes in the overtime period. Since I feel the score first-and-win is a joke, I felt I would comment on how I think the rules should be and also give examples of how other sports end their games that go extra time.
If the NFL would still like to keep their overtime ways they could shorten the time to five or ten minutes and then the NFL can still keep their precious sudden death rules. Or they could do it NBA style an let the teams play for five minutes and if it is still tied play another quarter and so on and so forth. This would be redundant but would be more effective then one team getting an opportunity to score and add a one into the loss column. This also might not fit into the NFL's plan of keeping games as short as they can but it would provide entertainment for the people who keep the NFL running, the fans. Something else that might be popular with the fans would be the way soccer and hockey finishes off their ties. Soccer plays a whole game then will play the World Cup overtime. Hockey plays a whole game then play a five-minute period then goes for shootouts. The teams will play an extra quarter (or whatever you want to call it) then if a team doesn't score a goal, which is pretty common then the two teams will go for penalty kicks or shootouts. What would happen in the NFL would be again a five to ten minute overtime period and then if there was still a tie there would be a series of field goals. This would also force teams to respect their kickers more and then kickers might be considered football players. You could set up the "kickout" in a variety of ways. You could have kickers start with 20 and if they both made go to 30 and so on. A coin toss would have to be used because if the first kicker misses one then the second kicker can clinch it when it goes through the uprights. Or you could just have the kickers kick from a set yardage and then when the first misses the other can finish the game. To add an extra twist you could have the defenses play. I am a fan and I would love to see that compared to the standard NFL format. In conclusion, I feel all of those alternatives are better then what is current. Don't just think of regular season games think of the playoffs and maybe even the Super bowl. Which one would you rather see? A winning touchdown pass or a great defensive stop on 4th down. A last second field goal in the 3rd overtime of an NBA style overtime. Or the winning kick in a kickoff. My pick would be a winning touchdown or defensive stop. Of course I am a little biased because the defensive stop came to me when Ohio State deflected Ken Dorsey's pass away in the 2002 Fiesta Bowl. But you might pick something else or even have your own ideas. But what still doesn't change is a team doesn't deserve to lose without a chance for redemption. Not even Terrell Owens and the Cowboys.
Got any ideas? I'd love to hear them. Send questions or comments to andrewuxley@insight.rr.com Story writing contestLog in or create an account to vote for this story!
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