Making OT in the NFL more exciting

Overtime as we know it in the NFL is decided upon two things basically: whichever team wins the coin toss and a kicker.

This is, unfortunately, a lamebrain way for an exciting game to end.

The team that takes the overtime kickoff usually gets the ball on or around their own 25 yard line after the return. Then, all they have to do is take it 40 yards to the opposing team's 35 yard line to get in field goal range, and make a 52-yard field goal, which most kickers in the NFL can usually do these days. This does nothing but result in a drab way to end a game that was fun to watch as both teams were dead even

The extinct XFL had a running fumble recovery play, in which the players often got hurt. To receive the ball first and, if necessary, first in overtime. That was possibly the most exciting, but pointless thing to watch ever in sports history.

College football has an overtime system it has used for about 10 years, in which each team gets the ball at the 25-yard line with a chance to score. After three sessions you are not allowed to kick extra points. This is exciting to watch, but sometime the games can go on forever and it's hard for a person with low bladder tolerance to sit through.

However, what I propose is something similar to the third OT and beyond in college football. When the 15-minute NFL overtime session starts, there should be a rule in place barring the kicking of field goals.

Why should a game come down to a thin-mint of silver or nickel palladium and a soccer reject?

When the then Baltimore Colts defeated the New York Giants to win the 1958 NFL Championship in Yankee Stadium in overtime, Johnny Unitas wouldn't allow his team to kick a field goal to win. Instead they ran it in for the winning score and won it like men, thus launching the popularity of the sport of professional football as we know it.

The same could happen in the NFL today on Sunday and Monday nights. Yeah, I know, the game is more popular than ever, but not as exciting as ever if a game ends in a tie. Instead of fourth down at the 35 and a long field goal for the win, you'd be seeing a team trying to keep the drive alive.

When Trent Green hit receiver Eddie Kenison for a touchdown bomb in Kansas City's win against Green Bay in OT in Week 6 of the NFL season, it was way more thrilling then, "The kick is up and it's good!" Field goals are only exciting when bad snaps or holds or incidents where the kicker slips and misses occur. One of the most exciting field goal outcomes occurs when the field goal attempts are blocked. (My favorite, of course, is when a kicker hurts himself celebrating a made kick.)

Every down would a matter if field goals were eliminated in the extra session. There would be no more soft prevent defense, and also no more boring run it left or right once you're in field goal range on first, second or third downs, to get it in the middle of the field for your kicker.

It's amazing how some teams' offenses are stymied towards the end of the game by an aggressive defense, then once overtime starts, because the team goes into the prevent defense, the offense drives the ball with ease until they get into field goal range. It seems that most teams can at least move it that far to their field goal kicker's range in overtime, but how many can punch it in for six?

Some people around the NFL don't like the college overtime rule because they say it's a different game than the one they've been playing the whole game. But, so is kicking a field goal for a win when only 40 yards are defended.

The other 52 players on a NFL roster decide the outcome of most of the games. They should decide the outcome of it in every overtime as well.