Jan 25, 2022 4 min read

Some have called the Kansas City-Buffalo game Sunday night the best NFL playoff game with the worst ending.

Any game that has 25 points scored, along with three lead changes and a tying 48-yard field goal, all in the final 1:54 of regulation, can’t be considered bad anything except defense, but I get what is being said. The NFL’s sudden-death – shouldn’t it be sudden-victory? – rule stinks because the outcome was decided by a coin flip and without Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen stepping on the field in the extra session.

It’s not the first time that an NFL playoff game has been decided in overtime without a high-profile quarterback ever getting on the field. In the 2009 wild-card round, San Diego beat Indianapolis in overtime. The Chargers scored on the first possession of OT with the Colts’ Peyton Manning standing helplessly on the sideline. There have been other such games but that was the first one that came to mind.

The NFL’s sudden-death overtime rule puts too much emphasis on the coin toss. That’s an odd way to decide a playoff game. College football does overtime the right way. Give both teams one possession per overtime. It takes the coin toss out of play.

• If you think how the NFL determines winners in its overtime playoff games is ridiculous, then you should take a look at baseball’s regular season. In particular, the independent Frontier League. That’s where stupid rules to end games are tried out until somebody can think of an even more ridiculous way to determine a winner.

In 2015, the Frontier League gave us the International Tiebreaker system – every half inning after the 10th begins with a runner on second base and no outs, similar to what Major League Baseball has used the past two seasons. If that wasn’t gimmicky enough, the Frontier League decided last season that any game that is still tied following one inning of the ITB will have the outcome decided by a home run derby. Yes, batting practice to decide a winner.

This summer, the Frontier League will scrap the home run derby. The league announced Monday that for all games that are tied after regulation – nine innings for a traditional game and seven innings if part of a doubleheader – and still tied after one inning of the ITB, then a “sudden-death inning” will determine the winner. Actually, it’s a sudden-death half-inning.

Here’s how it will work:

The home manager will choose either offense or defense. For the team on offense, the player on the lineup card immediately preceding the batter due up will start on first base. The defensive team will have three outs to prevent the offense from scoring. If the team on offense scores, then it wins the game. If the defensive team retires the side without allowing a run, then it gets the win. The sudden-death rule guarantees that no game will be played beyond 10½ innings.

“Short of playing traditional extra innings, the sudden-death tiebreaker is the best option for determining the outcome of a game,” said Evansville Otters manager Andy McCauley. “With regard to game time, injury prevention, and a baseball strategic outcome, I feel the new sudden-death rule could be an innovative solution.”

I can’t confirm this, but next year the Frontier League might start extra innings with the bases loaded and all baserunners blindfolded.

I know the idea behind these gimmicky end-it-now rules is to prevent 17-inning games that deplete a team’s pitching staff for days and finish in front of 25 diehard fans. But in the Frontier League, very few games ever reach 11 innings let alone the 17. Of the 96 games the Wild Things played in the regular-season last summer, only one made it to the home run derby, which was the equivalent of the 11th inning. Only 26 games in the entire league went to the derby format.

As one baseball fan told me Monday, “can’t they just play regular baseball like they have for 100 years? If it’s such a big deal that they don’t play past midnight or 10 innings, then just set a time limit and call it a tie. Two points for a win, one for a tie, hockey-style.”

Nah, not gimmicky enough.

• Former Trinity High School standout Sierra Kotchman put her name in the Fairmont State women’s basketball record book again Monday when she played in her 121st career game, a 71-69 loss to Wheeling. Kotchman has played in 121 consecutive games, all starts.

Against Wheeling, Kotchman scored a team-leading 26 points, which included six three-point field goals. She is averaging 17.3 points per game and shooting 39 percent from three-point range.