- Joined
- Mar 3, 2005
- Messages
- 8,840
- Reaction score
- 33,822
From the following article by Albert Breer:
Roger Goodell’s Mission to Mend Fences With NFL Players | The MMQB with Peter King
"The upshot of new overtime. Bill Belichick used to bring up a pretty interesting idea for modifying overtime—and it was to take sudden death, and go the other way entirely by setting a finite time and playing a whole period out. He’d raise the idea when college OT came up. He didn’t like the college overtime because it didn’t closely enough resemble regulation, by marginalizing special teams. Similarly, sudden death would marginalize the element of the clock.
“When it’s first team to score, or however the rules are set, or the way it is in college, that’s not the end of the game,” Belichick told WEEI in 2012. “It’s like basketball, you go and play basketball it comes down to the end of regulation, you’re making three-point shots, you’re fouling to get the ball back. OK, great, so now you’re in overtime. It’s the same thing (with a set clock). You get that same strategic element at the end of the basketball game. In football, we’ve lost that with the rules that we have now.” Asked what he wants, Belichick shot back, “Put some time on the clock and play. ... Play to the end of the game. Put 10 minutes, eight minutes (on the clock), whatever we decide.”
So the NFL isn’t there yet, but cutting the OT to 10 minutes is certainly a step in that direction. Is health and safety an element here? Sure. Is keeping games in a manageable timeframe also part of it? Absolutely. But as I’ve heard, what Belichick has wanted forever—to make the clock a factor in OT—is in play as well. If you’re asking me, I like it, because it adds another layer of strategy to the drama of the extra period."
--------
Plus... you're not starting a weird new mini-game. It's a true extension. Belichick... dang... you are the best.
Roger Goodell’s Mission to Mend Fences With NFL Players | The MMQB with Peter King
"The upshot of new overtime. Bill Belichick used to bring up a pretty interesting idea for modifying overtime—and it was to take sudden death, and go the other way entirely by setting a finite time and playing a whole period out. He’d raise the idea when college OT came up. He didn’t like the college overtime because it didn’t closely enough resemble regulation, by marginalizing special teams. Similarly, sudden death would marginalize the element of the clock.
“When it’s first team to score, or however the rules are set, or the way it is in college, that’s not the end of the game,” Belichick told WEEI in 2012. “It’s like basketball, you go and play basketball it comes down to the end of regulation, you’re making three-point shots, you’re fouling to get the ball back. OK, great, so now you’re in overtime. It’s the same thing (with a set clock). You get that same strategic element at the end of the basketball game. In football, we’ve lost that with the rules that we have now.” Asked what he wants, Belichick shot back, “Put some time on the clock and play. ... Play to the end of the game. Put 10 minutes, eight minutes (on the clock), whatever we decide.”
So the NFL isn’t there yet, but cutting the OT to 10 minutes is certainly a step in that direction. Is health and safety an element here? Sure. Is keeping games in a manageable timeframe also part of it? Absolutely. But as I’ve heard, what Belichick has wanted forever—to make the clock a factor in OT—is in play as well. If you’re asking me, I like it, because it adds another layer of strategy to the drama of the extra period."
--------
Plus... you're not starting a weird new mini-game. It's a true extension. Belichick... dang... you are the best.
Last edited: