Understanding the Coin Toss in Football : NFL
Understanding the coin toss in football is important because there are a variety of options that a team can choose instead of simply starting with the ball. As the years have gone by, teams have also chosen different options, due to personal preferences and differences in competitive thinking.
The options include:
Choosing a direction
Teams can choose which end of the field to score at after winning the coin toss. If you decide to choose a direction that means you forfeit the right to decide who gets the ball. Choosing a direction can be advantageous when you have to play in bad weather, something common as NFL games occur outdoors and players often brave snowy and rainy weather. Teams can choose the direction in that instance if it’ll help them, especially for overtime when the game is a single quarter and teams only go in one direction, while in the regular portion of the game, teams switch every quarter.
Choosing to get possession
Choosing who gets the ball used to be common until recent years (more to be explained later). You can get the first possession of the game, which can help you start to get an advantage. This is the option to choose in overtime, because you only need to score once for overtime, and so the first team with the ball has a much higher chance of winning.
Recently, NFL owners did vote to change this rule for the upcoming season, and both teams are now granted possession. However, this is only in overtime of playoffs games, where games were statistically skewed to teams that won the coin toss and chose to get the ball. One example was the AFC Championship last season between the Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs, where the Chiefs won an exciting match due to overtime.
Choosing to kick
This option means to kick off the ball to the losing team of the coin toss and forfeit possession. This is rarely done, because it gives the opponents the advantage and doesn’t guarantee you the ball in the second half. This is mostly done in overtime in bad weather when it’s hard to move the ball, because if you can stop the other team, it gives a offense a good opportunity to score.
Choosing to defer
Choosing to defer means your team will decide on the options in the second half and you let the other team decide for the first half. This was something new introduced in 2008, to balance the other options, since choosing the ball was almost always taken over choosing to kick.
When deferring was first introduced, the option was chosen around 39% of the time. However, after 2018, coaches started to prefer deferring, despite it having no significant advantage. According to some people, by the second half, teams will know how the game’s going, and then an executive decision can be made based on what’s happened. An extra possession is more beneficial in the second half for either coming back from a deficit or extending one to pretty much guarantee victory. It also gives the chance for two straight possessions, since the team can have the last possession in the first half and get it again for the second half.
I asked Bill Belichick if he considered receiving the opening coin toss after the #Patriots won it:
“We have two choices and we chose to defer.” @wpri12 pic.twitter.com/epXXf9zoP6
— Morey Hershgordon (@MHershgordon) January 16, 2022
They won the coin toss. Then the game.
Every play from the OT drive that sent the @Patriots to the @SuperBowl! #SBLIII #NFLPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/iyGCYeTYSx
— NFL (@NFL) January 21, 2019
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