NFL OT Coin Toss Rule Needs to Change
During regular season NFL games, captains from both teams meet at the 50-yard line three minutes before the game starts. The away captain gets first choice to pick heads or tails and the referee flips the coin. The winning captain can decide to kick, receive, defer or choose field direction, and if the winner defers the toss, the winning team will get the ball at the start of the second half. Deferring the ball has increased 80% in the past decade.
The loser is at a disadvantage, but the losing team still has the chance to receive the ball at some point in the game. OT rules are slightly different. In overtime games, the coin toss winner can receive the ball, and if the winner scores a touchdown, they win the game without the opponent ever getting the chance to field their offense.
The foolishness of this scenario was on full display in the Buffalo Bills-Kansas City Chiefs AFC Divisional Game at Arrowhead Stadium on Jan. 23, 2022. After going back and forth all night, the Chiefs got a field goal in the last seconds of the game to tie the score, 36-36 and force OT. As viewers know, the Chiefs won the toss and elected to receive. Patrick Mahomes surgically moved his offense down the field, threw an 8-yard pass to Travis Kelce in the end zone and won the game, 42-36.
Following the game, many fans questioned the end result on social media, protesting that Bills QB Josh Allen never got a chance to answer Mahomes:
Patrick Mahomes is no stranger to losing an OT playoff game because of this coin toss rule himself. During the 2019 AFC Championship Game, Kansas City was playing the New England Patriots for the right to advance to the Super Bowl. The game ended in regulation tied 31-31. Patriots quarterback Tom Brady won the coin, New England got a touchdown, won the game 37-31, and Mahomes, like Allen, never had the opportunity to touch the ball.
This wasn’t the first time Brady benefitted from a lucky coin toss. In Super Bowl LI, the Patriots tied the score in regulation and won the OT toss to beat the Atlanta Falcons. On Jan. 5, 2020, the New Orleans Saints lost the toss to the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC Wild Card round, and had to watch from the sidelines as the Vikings prevailed, 26-20.
Infact, of the 11 NFL playoffs that have gone to overtime since the new rules were implemented, 10 of them were won by the team who won the coin toss.
The Kansas City Chiefs proposed overtime rule changes that would have allowed both teams to possess the ball in their first overtime possession, even if the first team scored a touchdown. The NFL tabled the proposal and eventually dropped it. The Philadelphia Eagles also proposed minimizing the outsized effect of the overtime coin toss, a suggestion that once more fell on deaf ears.
With OT coin tosses frequently deciding playoff contests, perhaps it’s time for the NFL to revisit some of these proposals.
-Jeff Dahlberg
Twitter: @JeffDahlberg3