NFL: Overtime ain’t Peyton’s place
By Andy Pollin
If only the Super Bowl had been as good as the Super Bowl rematch. Instead of Seattle’s February trashing of Denver, 43-8, what unfolded last Sunday would have been so much more fun to watch. Down 17-3 in the fourth quarter, Peyton Manning rallied the Broncos to tie it in regulation with an 80-yard touchdown drive in the final minute and a two point conversion. But in overtime Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson did Manning one better by leading the Seahawks to a game winning score and a 26-20 victory. Obviously Manning wasn’t happy, but not just because they lost the game. He never stepped on the field in overtime and said afterwards:
“I called tails at the beginning of the game, and went with again in overtime. It was heads and it proved to be a significant call. But that’s the way it is. And you’d like to not leave it to that, leave it to get to that situation.”
Oh Peyton. Has he not forgotten why the overtime rules were amended in 2012? Largely for Peyton Manning. January 3, 2009, his 12-4 Colts lost a playoff game to the 8-8 Chargers. San Diego won the overtime coin flip and Darren Sproles scored a touchdown to give the Chargers a 23-17 victory. Immediately the “poor old Peyton” cries began. Like last Sunday, many thought it was unfair that just because the Colts didn’t win the coin flip, Manning never got a chance.
That led to at first, playoff overtime rules changes, and eventually what’s in place in now. Both teams do get a chance to possess the ball in overtime, but not if the team that wins the flip takes it down the field and scores a touchdown. A field goal won’t do it. It’ll be interesting to see if Manning’s whining leads to even more changes in the overtime rules.
Hard as it may be to believe, the NFL was more than a quarter century old before it occurred to them that needed any kind of overtime rules at all. Regular season games that ended in ties, stayed that way. The league didn’t have playoffs, but they did have a championship game and had been lucky enough to not have any of them end in ties. If they had one, perhaps the commissioner would have turned up his palms Bud Selig style (see 2002 MLB All Star Game). In 1946, Section nine under Article XIX was added:
“If the game results in a tie score, the sudden death system of determining the winner shall prevail.”
Alrighty then.
Ironically, the first NFL championship game was created because of too many ties. Prior to 1932, the champion was crowned based on regular season record. But in ’32 they had a problem. The Chicago Bears finished 6-1-6 – that’s right, six ties. The Portsmith Spartans wound up in a tie based on win percentage with six wins, one loss – and that’s right – four ties. So the solution was to have the teams go head to head – the first professional football playoff or championship game of any kind. The game was to be played at Wrigley Field, but bitter cold forced it indoors at Chicago Stadium, where Michael Jordan would later launch his incredible NBA career. There was only enough room for an 80-yard field and there was no grass on the ground, just dirt. Fortunately, the teams that had combined for 10 ties, didn’t have one this time. Chicago won 9-0. The only touchdown of the game was a two-yard pass from Red Grange to Bronco Nagurski.
The league finally got around to experimenting with instant replay for the regular season in 1955. They tried it in the preseason and in the one game where it was needed, the Los Angeles Rams beat the New York Giants 23-17. Three years later, the Giants wound up on the short end of a much more important overtime game, losing the 1958 championship game to the Baltimore Colts on Alan Ameche’s one-yard touchdown run. It has been called, “the greatest game ever played.”
As good as it was, overtime didn’t enter the NFL’s regular season until 1974. It was true sudden death. A team could win the flip, elect to receive the ball and kick a field goal for the game winner without the other team touching the ball. Seemed pretty easy to do. So what happened in the first ever overtime in a regular season game? The game finished in a tie anyway. Pittsburgh and Denver settled for a 35-35 score September 22, 1974. Not until November 10th did we have an overtime winner and it was a touchdown, not a field goal that decided the game. The Jets beat the Giants 26-20.
For the next 38 years, those 1974 overtime rules stayed in place. But there were bugs in the system. Thanksgiving day 1998, the Steelers and Lions went to overtime tied at 16. Referee Phil Luckett tossed the coin in the air and Steelers captain Jerome Bettis called tails – at least he said he did. The coin landed tails up and Luckett awarded the choice to receive or kick to Detroit. The Lions received and won the game on Jason Hanson’s 42 yard field goal. Bettis argued he’d been robbed, but Luckett said he went with what he said was Bettis’ original call – heads. A Pittsburgh television station had the sound of the tape of the call enhanced and discovered that Bettis had indeed called “heatails.”
The following week Commissioner Paul Tagliabue made a change in the rules. The call of the coin flip would have to be made before the flip, not during the flip.
And with all that’s in place to avoid ties, they still can happen. Maybe now that Donovan McNabb is analyzing games instead of playing in them, he’s learned that. As the Eagles quarterback in 2008 after finishing a 13-13 tie with the Bengals, McNabb said, “I’ve never been a part of a tie. I never even knew that was in the rule book. It’s part of the rules, and we have to go with it. I was looking forward to getting the opportunity to go out there and try to win the game – but unfortunately, with the rules, we settled for a tie.”
No matter how hard you try, you can’t please everyone.
More from FanSided.com
NFL Power Rankings Week 3: Seahawks, Broncos flip-flop; Cardinals crack top 5
College Basketball: Preseason AAC power rankings
NBA: 7 players with the most to lose in 2014-15
College Football Player Rankings: Week 4
All 30 NHL franchises ranked by all-time greatness