the opposite of Slater’s “kick” choice), plus their option of end zone.Īs if the whole thing needed to be confused further, the overtime coin toss gets an added wrinkle in the playoffs: When a team wins the toss to begin overtime, it can choose kick/receive or east/west, as in the regular season, but like the pregame coin toss winner it also can choose to defer. Now, in Sunday’s instance, Slater didn’t have the option to defer, but his error was related to the kick/defer confusion: By saying the word “kick” before specifying a direction, Slater opted to use his privilege by kicking off, and from Rule 4: Game Timing, Section 2, Article 2 of the NFL rulebook, “a captain’s first choice … is final and not subject to change.” The Jets therefore got the ball (i.e. After winning the pregame coin toss, the Longhorns chose to “kick.” When the option reverted to UCLA coming out of the half, the Bruins chose to “receive” - thereby giving them the ball to begin both halves. The most recent notable occurrence came last season between Texas and UCLA. If you watch a lot of college football, you see a similar mistake at least every other season or so. Yet “kick” probably isn’t (or shouldn’t be) even part of the Patriots’ coin-toss vocabulary, because if they elect to “kick,” they have spent their choice on kicking off, therefore losing the right to choose any of the other options, including an end zone to defend or to receive the kickoff coming out of halftime.
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