End of the line for overtime

          In all of sports, there are few ideas more botched than the National Football League’s overtime procedure.

          To begin with, there should be no overtime games during the regular season. The NFL has been slow to understand the national concern over injuries, particularly head injuries, suffered by football players. For that reason, the league should revert to the policy that regular season games end after four quarters.

          We all enjoy the drama the extra sessions bring, but the risk is too great. Make the potential for overtime one of the things that make the post season special.

          The league has limited the amount of contact in practice. What sense does that make if it does not also cut out overtime?

If the league is determined to avoid ties, it should use a football version of soccer’s tie-breaking penalty kicks: Have each team’s kicker line up at a 40 yard line and alternate placekicks, moving back five yards after one kick each. The longest successful kick wins.

If we have to have regular-season overtime, shorten the extra period to a maximum of 10 minutes and bring back sudden death.

Does anyone really like the rules that eliminated sudden death in overtime games? The new rules are silly. If we have to have overtime games in the regular season at all, end the game after the first overtime score.

          If the league insists upon playing the extra quarter in the event of a tie score after regulation ends, the stats generated in the fifth quarter (the fifth fifth?) should not count. Playoff stats don’t count and overtime stats should not count either.

          Most games end after four quarters. Players in those games do not have the chance to generate extra stats and the players in overtime games should not benefit from the additional playing time.

          Maybe we can’t make the game safer but we can make games shorter. Anything done to cut down on the cumulative effects the game has on the players is the right thing to do.

          We love the game and we love the players. We can help both by fixing the overtime mess.

          Thanks for reading.