Toss of the Coin

A recent Boston Globe article brought my attention to the modification of the NFL coin toss rule, where the team that wins the toss gets to defer receiving (ie possession) until the start of the second half.

In the mid-1980's, I had a simple, DOS-based, text-only football program on my Apple IIe, that I would actually rig to lose the coin toss in order to ensure I got possession to start the second half. The advantages, to me, were obvious -- if you were ahead after two quarters, it allowed you to extend your lead, or at a minimum take some time off the clock. If you were behind, obviously you'd like to have the ball first and maybe squeeze out an extra possession or two in the second half.

The logic was so obvious that I was surprised NFL coaches didn't practice it more frequently. However, I didn't understand the rule (and I'm guessing I'm not alone in this) -- under the old rule as I understand it, if the coin toss winner elected to kick off, the opposing team would have the choice at the start of the second half, and would naturally elect to receive (there's that logic again). The new rule is thus in line with what I thought originally. So it only took the NFL about 20 years to figure this out...

Of course, the larger question may be why do they have to toss the coin before each game anyway? Why not just have the home team decide?

Where's Bill Cosby when you need him?