The funny thing about how our culture works these days—perhaps that’s how it’s always been—is that the story that takes the center stage is the one that creates friction between sides, even if those sides are entirely arbitrary or insignificant.
The story of Sunday should have been about the incredible quarterback battle between two young players in their prime in the Kansas City Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes and the Buffalo Bills’ Josh Allen. While that was obviously discussed, seemingly drowning it out was the regurgitation over the conversation about the NFL’s overtime rules.
Implemented in 2010, the NFL modified the overtime format for the postseason to eliminate sudden-death situations for opening-drive field goals, so that if a team who receives the coin toss scores a field goal on that first possession, the game continues.