Posted 13 December 2008 - 12:05 PM
oh please rly, I wasn't trolling I was making a joke, I actually enjoy watching yankee football, its great for sitting down with a few beers to watch, and is particularly well suited for epic showdown sports movies. It IS a drawn out affair you have to admit, if te commercials would quit it'd be a much faster paced and exciting sport
On the subject at hand, regardless of whatever method one uses to decide a tied game, there's going to be gripes.
I remember getting into a heated argument on another board with an american (possibly at the time of the germany 06 world cup) over games (football/soccer) being decided by penalties. His rationale was that it was silly and they may as well have drawn straws or had a sack race. Personally I think if a game has got to penalties there's been 2 hours of football (soccer) has been played, and either there's nothing to separate the two or ones made showcase defense, or an offense disaster (missing everything) and really a shoot out is fair, it shows who can handle the pressure, who's going to bottle it, and it allows the little team a chance, which imo is fine if they've battled it out with a superior team for 2 hours and held them to a draw.
The OT ruling in NFL always struck me as a bit of an ad hoc affair, someone came up with it one day and it was never really refined. The principle is much like the "golden goal" rule that (thankfully for a short time) had effect in football (soccer) first to score in extra time wins. The golden goal was slightly more fair (slightly) as it doesn't matter too much who gets the kick off in extra time in football (soccer) but in american football, like rugby, whoever starts with the ball gains a massive advantage. I think it has to be a considerable advantage to the team going first, if you can get a few good gains, pop a field goal, game over, and the other team doesn't even get a chance to respond (in soccer silver goal was once discussed (extra time in soccer is a half hour, broke into two 15 minute periods) where, if one team has an advantage after the first 15 mins, they win) This is much more like the college ball system rly mentioned.
But as RLY detailed, that system has its flaws as well, whoever goes second in this instance gets the advantage.
Problematic as the coin toss might be, the fact remains, someone has to go first, and the much maligned coin toss is the traditional sporting way of deciding who does this, its random, 50/50 chance, and in that respect as fair as one can make it. Were you to break down the games statisitics and award kickoff to the best performing team (disregarding score, obviously, I duno, most yards gained or best hit of the game) it would be a farce and outrage would likely result.
And as unfair as it might seem Daser's statistics would suggest that its no more flawed than many other deciding methods 52.3% of the times the winning toss is the winning team. I'd be willing to bet going second in college ball OT would relay a similar marginal win on the % front. Penalties can be a lottery, a player could slip, the keeper a lot of the time picks a side and dives, regardless of the players set up.
When you look at the resulting wins to coin flip wins ratio, its nearly 50%, why not cut out the arguments, and just decide the tie with a coin toss, that way, there would be no more draws.
(or possibly roshambo, that would be awesome)
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