Profession football fans crowd around the TV Sunday afternoons to watch the weekly games. During the postseason games stakes are even higher, and the more important each second of the game is. Every possession of the ball is vital. The overtime rules in the pros especially cause controversy, because whoever wins the coin toss gets an advantage. 

Living in Kansas I have grown up as a huge Chiefs fan, so I was very upset in 2019 when the Chiefs lost to the New England Patriots in the AFC championship due to the overtime rules. The current rules are unfair to every team and need to be changed so one team doesn’t receive an advantage by winning a coin toss.  

The official rules say that a coin toss determines who has possession first and that each team must possess the ball at least once, unless the team with possession first scores a touchdown on their initial possession – a rule known as “sudden death.” This is exactly what happened in 2019 and what happened in the Jan. 23 game, but this time it saved the Chiefs. They won possession over the Bills and scored a game winning touchdown. 

In 2019 when the Patriots won the coin toss they suddenly had an advantage, which was unfair to the Chiefs because their offense didn’t get a chance to play in overtime.  After the 2019 loss, the Chiefs issued a statement to get the rules changed. They wanted to make it to where both teams must get possession, no matter if the team with the ball first scores a touchdown. The Chiefs also want to eliminate the second coin toss and replace it with the initial coin toss winner from the beginning of the game.  

The winning of the coin toss is crucial to a team having the chance to win in overtime. In 2021 the Baltimore Ravens and the Philadelphia Eagles proposed an idea that would make the coin toss win fairer for both teams. They suggested that the winning team would get the option to choose starting the ball on offense or defense or they could choose where to spot the ball to begin the overtime period.  

A rule like this would allow both teams to have a part in the overtime decision and wouldn’t give the winner of the coin toss an edge in the overtime period. 

When a game has to enter overtime, it needs to be played similarly to the original four quarters, that way there is no unfair advantage based on luck. I feel that if the rules made it to where both teams had to have possession, the course of a season would be based more on the skill of the teams.   

While I was happy on Jan. 23 when the Chiefs won, I understand how Bill’s fans feel right now, because it probably resembles how I felt three years ago. To make things fairer for all the teams, the NFL needs to change the rules of overtime so that both teams have a shot at scoring, and it doesn’t just come down to luck of winning the coin toss or getting a touchdown on your first possession. The winner should be a result of skill not luck.