This Is Thee League’s Version of Deflategate
It’s tough to beat Tom Brady.
The guy is as tough as a crocodile, as resilient as cockroach. You just can’t keep him down – he keeps coming back and back and back.
And it’s even tougher when the other team doesn’t even get the ball.
That’s what happened as Brady led the New England Patriots down the field for the winning touchdown in a 37-31 win to go to Super Bowl VIII while the Kansas City Chiefs and their quarterback, Patrick Mahomes, sat on the sideline.
Mahomes never got off the bench in overtime because of the NFL’s awful overtime rule that awards a win to the team that scores a touchdown if it has first possession. With Brady on the side of the Patriots, the Super Bowl team was pretty much decided by a coin flip.
This simply is not fair. The Chiefs had no chance to counter Brady’s touchdown. And you saw what Mahomes did at the end of regulation, driving the team down the field for a field goal that led to OT. Imagine the excitement had he had a chance in overtime?
The NFL overtime rules give each team the ball if a field goal is scored on the first possession but not a touchdown. The latter happens, it’s done. Its like taking the air out of the ball, the NFL’s version of Deflategate.
I can understand (kind of) the philosophy behind this in the regular season. The league doesn’t want to the games to go on forever, especially when the timing of games is so closely tied to the networks.
It’s not a fair way to determine the best team on that particular day (or night) but unlike college football, the NFL regular season is not a do-or-die situation on a weekly basis.
But in playoff games, play it out to the end. So the game goes longer – the point is to get the most deserving teams into the Super Bowl and to win the Super Bowl.
The Chiefs deserved that chance and the NFL should change its overtime rule.
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