No Such Thing as Fair Play With OT

If the NFL ran the Olympics, 33 million Canadians might have jumped into the Bering Strait on Sunday.

Instead of Sidney Crosby scoring to beat the U.S. for the hockey gold medal, the game would have been decided by the faceoff.

First team to control the puck wins!

Overtime rules are not quite that bad in football, but they're obtuse enough that something should be done.

The good news is the NFL is considering it. The bad news is I have to invoke the word "fairness," which inevitably makes me sound like a whiner.

So to sum up my argument: Waaaahhhh!

I realize life and the NFL aren't supposed to be fair. There's no such thing as an ideal solution or guaranteed fairness. But when teams don't have a reasonable chance to score/win, a little whining is in order.

The NFL's latest idea: If Team A opens with a touchdown, it wins. If it kicks a field goal, Team B gets a chance to tie. Or it could win with a touchdown.

If neither team scores a touchdown on its first possession, the first team to score wins.

Perfect?

Hardly. But it's better than what we have now because Team B at least gets a chance to score. And no, I'm not a Vikings fan.

This round of OT arguing ignited when the Saints beat Minnesota in NFC Championship Game. New Orleans won the coin toss, benefited from a couple of penalties, made a couple of first downs, then kicked a 40-yard field goal.

Thanks for coming, Vikes. Please collect your parting gifts at the door.

Of all the flaws in every OT plan from college football to the PGA Tour, the worst is when one side never even gets a chance to score.

You could argue that NFL teams could score on defense. You can also argue that Jerry Jones' parking valet could score with the Cowboys' head cheerleader.

Some things just aren't going to happen. That's why teams never win the coin toss and choose to play defense.

They want the ball. Teams that win the coin toss win 60 percent of the time. And almost 75 percent of OT games are decided by a field goal.

You've heard the argument that it's not fair when three-hour battles between hairy-chested gladiators are decided in a blink by weenie kickers. I'm not against 134-pound Euro or American kickers winning games. They do it all the time in regulation.

They just do it too often in overtime.

Your opinion on this is probably based on whether your team has been left holding the clipboard. If Minnesota had won the coin toss and kicked a field goal, Saints fans would be engaged in what they're now accusing Vikings fans of doing.

Waaaahhhhh!

Call me a whiner, but I would have liked to have seen Brett Favre have to respond. He probably would have thrown an interception, but at least that would have kept Vikings fans from screaming they never really had a chance.

Call them whiner sympathizers, but a few important people actually agree. The NFL's Competition Committee discussed the new rules last week at the Indianapolis Combine. It will float it at the owners meeting later this month in Orlando.

The plan's flaws will be chewed to death by then. Like Team B would never punt after Team A kicked a field goal. And longer games increase the chance of injury. And this proposal not applying to regular-season games.

And didn't Canada win the overtime faceoff on Sunday?

Beats me. I just know if the U.S. had never touched the puck, I would have felt like throwing the IOC into the Bering Strait.

If you agree, welcome to the Whiners Club.

We know there's no way to guarantee fairness, much less victory. We'd just like teams to get a shot at them.