Overtime…

There has been a buzz about the extension period of certain sports over the last weekend. Namely the NFL and the Olympic hockey gold medal game. In overtime the Olympics they played a four on four game with the first score deciding who won. While according to NHL.com under rule 84 they play one five minute period with all five members intact. So the problem is did the Canadian’s more experienced lineup have an advantage in overtime? One player doesn’t seem like much but it opens up skating room, matchup problems, and did the American team even have plays and defenses designed for four players? When you take away 20% of a team it has a big impact. I’m not trying to take anything away from the Canadian team they played great and deserved the gold but the overtime rule did have an effect on the game. The NFL is also having overtime issues.  I know the season is over but the offseason is in full swing which includes the competition committee. They want to be fair to both teams that enter overtime so here is the proposed rule that I got from ESPN.com. The first team that scores a touchdown wins the game, if the first team with the ball scores a field goal the opponent will get a chance to tie or win the game, if both teams score a field goal the next team to score wins the game. This is a classic case of “if it is not broke don’t fix it” there is a reason football is the most watched sport in America, it is because in football everything counts; every score, turnover, win, lose, you only get one shot at a playoff game, and sudden death overtime. Whoever scores first wins and that’s it. Some people say that it’s not fair to the team that loses the coin flip because sometimes they never get to see the ball. Teams spend millions of dollars on defensive players and coaches so there should be no excuse for a defense to not come up with a stop in the clutch. And if the head coach distrusts his defense he can always go for the onside kick, it worked for the Saints. A lot of the excitement in this sport is knowing you only got one shot to make something happen it’d be a shame to see that taken away.

BY: Skip2mylue (Board Operator)