One second left, the Green Bay Packers down 37-40 against the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday Night Football, the kick, up and through. A tie. The Cowboys and Packers walk off the field without a winner. The worst feeling in sports, a tie. You watch a three to four hour game all for nothing. No winner. No loser. An ugly record.
Since the beginning of the league, there’s been 320 ties total. A majority of the ties came before 1974 when the league introduced regular season overtime rules. Since 1974 only 30 ties have occurred because of the overtime rules, but this past season the NFL took a step backwards, leading to more ties.
This past offseason, the NFL adopted new regular season overtime rules. In overtime, each team possesses the ball regardless if the team with the ball first scores a touchdown. They use these same rules in playoff games, however in the playoffs, if the score is still tied when time runs out they go to a second overtime instead of tying.
This rule will undoubtedly lead to more ties since each team possesses the ball, taking up most of the ten-minute overtime period. If both teams score a field goal or touchdown with no time left, then a tie will occur leading to outrage with fans. Fans hate ties, we saw this in the Packers vs. Cowboys game where many fans on social media were outraged with some saying that it’s better to lose.
Ties are bad for the NFL, but they can choose from an abundance of solutions to fix this issue. ompletely remove the tie and put it in the playoff rules where the game will keep going until there’s a winner. Another solution, use the extremely entertaining rules used in college football.if a game remains tied after regulation, it goes into overtime, guaranteeing each team a possession starting from their opponent’s 25-yard line. If the score’s still tied after the first overtime, a second period begins with the same format, but any touchdown scored must be followed by a two-point conversion attempt instead of a traditional kick. Should the teams still be deadlocked after the second overtime, the game enters a third overtime period and beyond, where they alternate two-point conversion attempts from the three-yard line until one team successfully converts and the other fails.
The NFL should adopt the college rules. These rules will not only fix the tie problem, but will also provide a more entertaining overtime period. College football popularity is starting to rival the NFL and their overtime rules are a big reason why. Football fans would much rather see two teams go into a sudden-death match than two teams tie after a four-hour prime-time football game. With the current overtime rules in the NFL ties will continue, the NFL needs to fix these rules before their viewership plummets and the league becomes secondary to college football.
