After his team’s overtime win over the Chargers, Chiefs coach Andy Reid acknowledged an uncomfortable truth about the NFL’s overtime rules: Winning the coin toss is a big deal.
Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert were both playing such great football on Thursday night that the team getting the ball first was going to be highly likely to win the game with an overtime touchdown -- which is exactly what the Chiefs did, with Mahomes hitting Travis Kelce for the game-winner. Reid noted the importance of having the ball.
“We were able to have the ball last,” Reid said.
The Chiefs chose linebacker Melvin Ingram, a former Charger, to handle the coin toss for them in the game, and Ingram won the coin toss before the game and again before overtime.
“My hat goes off to Melvin Ingram for winning two coin flips,” Reid said.
Reid later joked that he took a knee on the final play of regulation, rather than attempting a Hail Mary on the final play, because he thought Ingram would win the toss in overtime.
“We were down to five seconds, took a knee and just said, ‘Listen, we have Melvin for the coin flip,’” Reid said.
The NFL has tried to tweak the overtime rules to make coin flips less significant, but the reality is that winning the toss is still a big deal. Different overtime rules, like the Ravens’ ”spot and choose” format, would eliminate any advantage from winning the coin toss, but until that rule is implemented, the toss of a coin is still a significant determining factor in the winner of an NFL game.
