Do The New NFL Overtime Rules Really Change Anything?

ever since the 2018 ASU championship game the use of a coin toss in overtime has come at the question as to whether or not it is fair to dictate how overtime plays out and after the complete offensive explosion that was a 2021 ASC divisional between the bills and the Chiefs the NFL has actually changed the overtime rules to fit the complaints of those who claim the coin toss mechanic plays too much of a role in deciding overtime but how did the coin toss work before what are the new rules do the rules even solve the issue we're about to dive into that and more so join me as we take a deep dive into the dreaded coin toss the overtime rules in the NFL are pretty simple after regulation if both teams are tied in score the referee will ask the way team to call heads or tails for example if the away team calls tails and it lands on Tails then the away team can choose whether or not they would like first possession of the football if it lands on heads then the home team would choose [Applause] before the rule change playoff over time would go to sudden death by touchdown if a team scores on any type of touchdown the game is over if they kick a field goal then the opposing team would have an opportunity to tie the game via field goal or win the game by a touchdown but with the new overtime rules if a team scores a touchdown in overtime the other team will then get an opportunity to score a touchdown and tie the game then sending it back to the sudden death rules for some reason these rules now apply only in the postseason and not in the regular season so now the postseason and regular season have two different overtime rules which I still can't wrap my head around so let's examine both sides of this argument to see whether or not this rule change realistically even changes anything both times NFL fans have argued for overtime changes came in high scoring AFC playoff games the first time mainly came from Chiefs fans who felt that they were cheated out of a Super Bowl appearance by the way the 2018 AFC champion championship game played out D4 but the second time came from a wider majority of NFL fans who witnessed the fast-paced offensive explosion between Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes where Gabe Davis broke the single game receiving touchdown record in a playoff game and the chiefs were able to tie the game on a last-second field goal a lot of people bring up the argument that well the bills had one of the biggest meltdowns in sports history and let the Chiefs score in 13 seconds and although it's funny and easy to point out and laugh that happened in regulation and it's kind of a cheap shot to bring up so we're not going to apply that to this equation so what's the argument for these new rules exactly well many have argued over the past year that if Josh Allen had a chance in that game in overtime then he would have been able to at least tie the game and seeing how that game played out that is more than a fair point to make giving both teams a possession on offense would in theory make overtime more fair but do the statistics even add up not counting the 2022 season NFL teams are 86-67 and 10 when winning the coin toss with the advantage of winning the toss coming out to just 52.8 percent however prior to the 2022 season teams that won the coin flip in overtime went on to win 10 out of the past 11 overtime games and over the past five years including the 2023 season the team who had gone on to win the coin flip has won 61 percent of the time so it seems like there's a case to change the rules but it's not as simple as that an argument that's been made since the 2018 playoffs is just played defense football is a three-phase game offense defense and special teams in the 2021 AFC Championship the Chiefs and Bengals went into overtime with the Chiefs winning the coin toss and many people thought the game was already over but they were surprised to see the Bengals defense come up with an interception and win the game sending the franchise to their first Super Bowl appearance since the first Bush Administration but that's not all this is where the 2023 season plays a factor of the 18 overtime games this year only one had a team win the coin toss and score in their first drive that one game was the week 11 Broncos Raiders matchup that ended with the Raiders scoring on their first possession every other overtime game did not end on the offense's first possession it's also interesting to point out that the Chiefs fans who wanted the rules changed in 2018 were awfully quiet when the Chiefs won against Buffalo in that 2021 divisional round so after all this data and discussion what should the NFL have done well I think they either should have done nothing or modified the overtime rules to eliminate the coin toss altogether and Implement a system similar to college football overtime that allows for multiple offensive possessions ultimately until we see how the new overtime rules play in action I truly don't believe they will fix the problem that fans were even bringing up in the first place so like many problems we come across in our football World the NFL ultimately does nothing