As any of you who routinely visit this address know, we hate the current overtime rule.
Actually, “hate” isn’t strong enough. We despise it. We loathe it.
And we recently had become convinced, given the lack of any serious chatter for change after the 2009 NFC title game, that a sudden-victory field goal on the first drive of overtime in a Super Bowl would be the only thing that would prompt a too-little, too-late change to the rule.
But maybe the three-point, one-drive win by the Saints has finally gotten the attention of enough people with enough influence. Peter King of SI.com and NBC reports that the league’s Competition Committee will consider a “modified sudden death” rule during the upcoming league meetings in Orlando.
In response, NFL Network’s Rich Eisen says via Twitter that “[i]t’s coming,” explaining that the first team to score six points would get the win. Eisen says he’s heard it would be used in the playoffs at first.
Though we still prefer an approach that ensures one possession for each team, the first-to-six rule will make the cries of “just play defense” a little more persuasive. So in the case of a first-drive touchdown, we’d give the other team a chance to match or beat it (via eight points), with the format converting to sudden death if each team scores a touchdown on the first drive.
Then again, if they fix this rule, what else will we be able to bitch about? Oh, right. We’ve still got tampering, the Rooney Rule, and the Louis Murphy thing.