One of the biggest complaints of NFL fans is that winning in overtime comes down to the luck of a coin flip. Truth is, there's a reason to gripe. 
 
 About 98% of teams that win the OT coin toss choose to receive the ball. That first possession is an enormous advantage, since the winning team scores, on average, after just 5.5 minutes of OT to end the game. 
 
 Indeed, football teams with winning records win less often in overtime than their counterparts in the NBA and MLB, according to a study appearing in April's Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports. These data, assembled by the Harvard Sports Analysis Collective, also show that when comparing each sport's extra time length to regulation play, NFL overtimes are 33% shorter than NBA overtimes and 167% shorter than extra innings in baseball. 
 
 The league is considering a new rule—if approved by 75% of the owners—that could even out scoring opportunities, says NFL spokesman Greg Aiello. 
 
 The new overtime would still end if the offensive team scored a touchdown, but if it only makes a field goal, the other team would get a possession. If both teams kick field goals, the next team to score would win. 
 
 Hold the applause, though. If approved, the rule would be used only in the playoffs. 
 
 —David Biderman ||||| SAM FARMER / ON THE NFL Proposed changes still leave NFL overtime rule far from perfect 
 
 A lot of people don’t like the NFL’s sudden-death overtime rule, but is it necessary to swap one flawed system for another? 
 
 The proposal says the team that gets the ball at the start of overtime can win on the opening possession only with a touchdown. If that team kicks a field goal, the other team gets a possession with a chance to either win with a touchdown or tie with a field goal. If the score is tied after that, it would be sudden death from that point on. 
 
 Not everyone agrees. So this month, at the owners' meeting in Orlando, Fla., the league's competition committee will propose a revamped overtime, one that gives both teams a better chance to touch the ball. But that's an imperfect plan, too, proof that even some of the smartest football minds around — committee members Rich McKay, Jeff Fisher and Bill Polian among them — cannot build the perfect beast. 
 
 The overtime rule, sudden death that starts with a coin flip, is unfair, imbalanced, hopelessly flawed … and the best that we have. 
 
 I think of the NFL's overtime rule the way Winston Churchill looked at democracy. It's the worst possible system — except for all the others that have been tried. 
 
 If neither team scores on its first possession, the game would continue on a sudden-death basis. 
 
 The plan will require a three-quarters-majority vote from owners to pass. Assuming it's proposed as is (although it's entirely possible it will be further modified), the system would be for postseason games only. That means it immediately would address the league's pervasive fear that a Super Bowl will end the way this year's NFC championship game did. In that game, the Saints won on a quick, first-possession field goal while Brett Favre and the rest of Minnesota's offense watched helplessly from the Vikings' sideline. 
 
 But the current system allows defense to win games, too. That's what happened in the NFC wild-card game between Green Bay and Arizona. The Cardinals won by forcing an Aaron Rodgers fumble and returning it for a touchdown. That will be remembered as one of the best playoff games in league history, not as an indictment of the overtime system. 
 
 The system to be proposed feels contrived in the way that it handcuffs teams. Deciding how a team can or can't win — a standard that's different at different points of the season, no less — changes the game too much. 
 
 Not only that, but the new proposal has its problems. Yes, it eliminates the possibility of the coin-flip winner clinching with a quick field goal, but it then tips the scales in favor of the team that gets the second possession. 
 
 Imagine if the rule was in place for the Vikings-Saints game, for instance. After the Saints went up by three, Favre would have gotten the ball with the knowledge that the Vikings would need at least a field goal. Punting wouldn't be an option. All four downs would be in play, and advance knowledge of that would have provided the Vikings a strategy-altering advantage. 
 
 Both the current and the proposed rules have their drawbacks. Is it really necessary to trade one flawed system for another? Don't think so, especially if it threatens the undeniable excitement of sudden-death situations. 
 
 (As for the college overtime system of giving each team a chance to score from the opponent's 25-yard line, it takes special teams entirely out of the equation. That might work in college, but it's too much of a concession in the NFL.) 
 
 Sports Illustrated's Peter King points to interesting numbers, ones that suggest that the improving accuracy of kickers has made the current system increasingly unfair. In the first five years of overtime, kickers made 61% of their attempts. In the last five years, that number improved to 82%. Since 1974, 73% of overtime games have been won by a field goal. The number of games won by the coin-flip winner has risen sharply over the last 16 seasons. Between 1974 and 1993, 46.8% of overtime games were won by the winner of the coin flip. That has jumped to 59.8% since 1994.
– NFL fans who hate the overtime rules have reason to hope. More often than not it seems, the team that wins the coin toss zips down the field and ends the game with a field goal. League owners are considering a revision to try to even things up: The game can end on the opening possession only if the offensive team scores a touchdown. If it kicks a field goal, the other team gets the ball back to try to win or tie. The OT becomes sudden death again if both teams kick field goals of if neither scores on its first possession. The rules go into effect if 75% of owners agree—but only for playoff games, reports the Wall Street Journal. Already, critics are surfacing. Sam Farmer at the Los Angeles Times worries the proposed changes give an edge to the team with second possession.