NFL teams have proposed a number of changes to the league’s overtime format over the past several years, and one of the latest has fans buzzing in a big way.
Mike Florio of Pro Football talk reported this week that the Baltimore Ravens have made two radical proposals to overtime procedures that are centered around the “spot and choose” idea. The premise is simple — one team gets to choose the spot of the ball to start overtime, and the other team decides whether they want to play offense or defense. The coin toss would give the winning team the right to choose whether they want to decide the spot of the ball or choose between offense and defense.
The Ravens actually made two proposals, but both involve the same OT format. One proposal calls for sudden-death, where the first team to score wins in what would be up to 10 minutes of OT. The other proposal has no sudden-death and 7:30 of OT. Both proposal state that games can end in ties.
New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick is in favor of the “spot and choose” idea and supports the proposal without sudden-death, according to Florio.
Obviously, the goal is to add more strategy to OT. Teams with strong defenses would probably opt to give their opponent the ball deep in the opponent’s territory. Teams with great offenses would probably take the ball, especially if the format is sudden-death. Other factors like weather and home-field advantage would also come into play.
The NFL has come a long way from an overtime format that was essentially determined by a coin toss. The “spot and choose” format would take the league even further away from that, which is why it should receive support. In order for it to pass, 23 teams would have to agree with the Ravens.
