Former Navy football star in the 1920’s, and later coach, Tom Hamilton once famously said “a tie is like kissing your sister.”
While the quote is a little blunt, it certainly conveys a tone for the feeling teams get when their game ends in a tie. Even underdogs go home feeling like they could have gotten more, and unless it’s some playoff implication there usually aren’t a lot of fans celebrating ties either.
Of the major four North American sports, football is the only remaining one that allows ties after the NHL adopted shootouts in 2005. The MLB and NBA simply play until there is a winner, no matter how long it takes.
Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson joined the “ManningCast” during Monday Night Football where he explained his disdain for ties.
Wilson wasn’t simply spewing out unproductive venom, though. No, no, no. Russell has an idea of how to approach deadlocked football games.
That’s… interesting.
Wilson believes that it may be beneficial to utilize kickers to decide games that are taking too long to decide otherwise. It’s not the craziest idea to utilize kickers, but his idea of a coin toss to determine one kick seems a little odd. Would it not be more beneficial to have the two kickers participate in a shootout-style decider?
It's actually not the first time Wilson has brought up the idea. Back in 2016, Wilson explained his idea in more detail. (via ESPN)
"Let's say we're the away team. We win the coin toss, we get the ball on the 35-yard line going in. You kick one field goal," Wilson said. "You can't do anything else but a field goal. You make the field goal, the game's over. If you miss the field goal, the game's over and the other team wins.
"I just think that if you play that long, you're putting your lives on the line. You should find a way to win. I don't like ending in a tie."
The idea definitely brought a mixed bag of thoughts…
What do you think? Let us know your opinion @BarDown!
(H/T ESPN)
