Should a Super Bowl be Determined by a Coin Toss?

With all of the games that end tied in regulation during the regular season and the playoffs, there has never been a Super Bowl that has gone into overtime. There have even been three Super Bowl games tied in the final minute, but then one team went ahead to pull off a last minute victory during regulation. Many games have been extremely close to going into overtime; in both 2004 and 2002, New England Patriot kicker Adam Vinatieri kicked game-winning field goals as time expired to win the games. In 2000, Tennessee stopped one yard short of scoring a tying touchdown as time expired.
Here’s a video of that last play which is one of the closest times a Super Bowl almost went into overtime:



As you can see, many recent games have been within a score range that could have sent the game into overtime. In fact, two of the last five Super Bowls have ended with the winning team only three points ahead of their opponent, meaning the game could have been tied up by a field goal.

My point is this: can you imagine the outrage if a Super Bowl ever did go into overtime and was determined on the coin flip and subsequent first possession? First of all, the Super Bowl garners one of, if not the, highest television ratings of any program all year. Many of these viewers are people who do not watch football regularly, but watch the national event that is the Super Bowl. Thus, it is fair to say that many of these viewers are not familiar with the NFL overtime rules, and seeing it happen in a Super Bowl would be their first exposure to the system. Even many football fans are not as knowledgeable of NFL overtime rules as one might think; in discussing this subject with some friends, two die-hard football fans actually argued with me that the NFL does give equal possessions, confusing it with NCAA college football rules.

The Super Bowl is one of the most revered traditions of American sports, and has a tradition of hard-fought battles between worthy opponents. If a Super Bowl was determined “game over” by the flip of a coin, I truly believe there would be an uproar, and this issue would get much more attention. Maybe this needs to happen to get the attention to finally address the issue; however, I’d like to see Roger Goodell, the competition committee, and the franchise owners proactively modify the system so no Super Bowl ever goes down in history as being influenced by a random coin toss. That would be a dark spot on Super Bowl history.


SOURCES:

NFL Super Bowl History
Youtube Video-One Yard Short