NFL is under pressure following Last week's controversial AFC championship. Many fans of the NFL are clamoring for rule-change. The rule in question states that the first team to score a touchdown in overtime wins the game. This means that if the team that receives the ball first gets in the endzone on their first drive, the game ends without the other team even getting a chance to score.
Benefits of the current overtime rules
Though the rules may have hundreds of thousands of angry fans clamoring for their replacement, they do serve a purpose. First of all, they dramatically decrease the likeliness of the game ending in a tie.
Without this rule, teams would be more conservative, strategically matching the score of their opponent until given a guaranteed chance to win. The current "sudden death" rules force teams to be aggressive, leading to quicker play and also higher ratings for the NFL, which at the end of the day, is still technically a television show. This also means that more touchdowns generally happen on any given week, giving sports shows more highlights to show audiences, leading to higher watch-time and viewer engagement.
Rival fans just don't like the Patriots
As discussed in a Patsfans's article earlier today, there's a point to be made that this entire event may just be fans of other teams becoming unhappy with the success of the Patriots.
The team has made appearances in 4 of the last 5 super bowls and hasn't had a season with below 10 wins in 16 years. New England has no shortage of accomplishments, but with that, no limit to controversy. This rule definitely favors the Patriots offense, as well.
With Tom Brady being renowned as one of, if not the best quarterback in playoff games, and the Patriots receiver core being comprised of elite and experienced talent, it should come as no surprise that the Patriots excel with this rule in place.
It's not that hard to believe that if the Chiefs won last week's game, instead of the Patriots, this national argument might not be happening.
What would Happen if the NFL changed the rule?
Many solutions to this problem have been proposed, but the most widespread and reasonable one seems to be that there would be an entire quarter of play added to the game.
The team leading at the end of that quarter would be the winner. However, this could be difficult in the playoffs. In the regular season at the end of this fifth quarter, if each team had the same amount of points, the game could simply be deemed a tie. In the postseason, this could lead to players being pushed to play unreasonable amounts of time. There is certainly an argument to be made for both sides of this debate, and ultimately it is up to Roger Goodell, and the leaders of the NFL to decide how to react to this recent public outcry.
