How to Fix NFL Ties: Stealing the Drama From Soccer Penalty Kicks

Why Penalty Kicks Are Like a Bomb Defusal

Even though the United States is out of the World Cup, the author is still watching every single remaining game. But instead of cheering for a specific team, they are hoping for one thing: penalty kicks.

Most soccer fans call their sport the "beautiful game," but penalty kicks are not beautiful. They are unhinged madness! It’s impossible to look away, kind of like watching someone try to defuse a bomb while you are stuck in the room with them.

Through the first two elimination rounds of the World Cup, only three games ended in penalty kicks, and all of them were awesome:

• Egypt beat Australia
• Morocco beat the Netherlands
• Paraguay beat Germany

Paraguay’s win was one of the biggest upsets of the World Cup this year. Fans in that South American country will probably be talking about it for the next 60 years!

Important Point: Penalty kicks are chaotic and dramatic, which makes them super exciting to watch even if they aren’t "pretty" soccer.

Why Ties in the NFL Are the Worst

One big reason the author loves penalty kicks is because they hate ties (when both teams finish with the exact same score).

In soccer, ties are a "necessary evil" during the regular season and the World Cup group stage. But in the NFL (National Football League), there is no good reason for them. The NFL only plays 17 regular-season games. If the author were ever the boss (commissioner) of the league, the first thing they’d do is eliminate all ties.

In NFL playoff games (the elimination games at the end of the year), ties are not allowed, and the author loves that format. But that playoff rule doesn’t work for the regular season. In playoffs, both teams are guaranteed at least one possession (turns with the ball). If they match each other or don’t score, the game could go to double or even triple overtime (extra extra time).

The Problem With NFL Overtime Today

During the regular season, asking players to play multiple overtimes is just not practical. Playing football takes a huge physical toll on your body over the normal four quarters. Adding a fifth quarter makes it even worse! That’s why the NFL shortened regular-season overtime from 15 minutes to 10 minutes back in 2017.

The shortened 10-minute period works fine, BUT if the game is still tied when the clock hits zero, everything falls apart. The author doesn’t want a tie. The NFL needs to embrace the drama of penalty kicks by creating a suspenseful way to end any game tied after one overtime.

Important Point: Football is too exhausting for endless overtime, but leaving a game as a tie feels unsatisfying and boring.

Two Ideas to End Ties Forever

The author has two proposals (ideas) to fix this:

1. A rule already used in college football.
2. A brand-new rule that would guarantee the "penalty kick" part of overtime lasts only ONE play.

Proposal 1: The Two-Point Shootout (Borrowed from College)

In college football, overtime starts with each team getting one possession from their opponent’s 25-yard line. If tied after one overtime, they go to a second. If still tied after the second overtime, they move to a phase where both teams try a "two-point conversion" (scoring 2 points from close to the end zone instead of kicking).

The author does not want the NFL to copy the first part of the college rule. Instead, the NFL should keep its 10-minute overtime, but if the game is still tied after that, they add the two-point shootout. This is the closest thing football has to soccer penalty kicks!

How it would have worked last year:
Last year, only one NFL game ended in a tie: Week 4, when the Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys finished 40-40.

• If this rule were in place, both teams would try one two-point conversion after the 10-minute overtime.
• If one team makes it and the other misses, the maker wins.
• If both make it or both miss, they go to Round 2.

That Packers-Cowboys game was on Sunday Night Football and watched by 26.9 million people (NBC’s fifth-most-watched regular-season game last season!). If overtime had ended with the NFL’s first-ever two-point shootout, it might have broken the internet.

The downside: The two-point shootout could drag on. If both teams keep scoring or both keep failing, it could go for 7 or 8 rounds—and that’s after they already played a 10-minute overtime. Not ideal!

Proposal 2: The Field Goal Gamble (One Kick to Decide It All)

Soccer penalty kicks are exciting because they end the game fast. This proposal does the same for football: it ends the extra overtime on ONE play.

If two NFL teams are still tied after the 10-minute overtime, everything comes down to the "field goal gamble." A kicker (the person who kicks the ball for points) gets to decide the game!

Here is how it works, step-by-step:

1. The game is tied after the 10-minute overtime.
2. They flip a coin.
3. The team that wins the coin toss gets to pick the distance for a field goal kick.
4. The team that loses the coin toss gets to decide which team tries the kick (themselves or the other team).

Example with the Packers-Cowboys game:

• Packers win the coin toss and pick a 61-yard kick.
• The Cowboys have Brandon Aubrey, one of the NFL’s best kickers, so they choose to try the kick themselves.
• If Aubrey makes it, Cowboys win. If he misses, Packers win.
• (The Packers kicker was Brandon McManus, who is 1 of 10 in his career from 60 yards and longer, so the Cowboys could have just said, "You kick it," letting McManus try and likely miss).

Letting one team pick the distance and the other pick the kicker creates a "checks and balances" system. The picking team won’t choose 75 yards, because they might have to kick it themselves!

Kickers already decide games often with last-second kicks in normal time. Some players might hate leaving it to the kicker, but others love it.

Important Point: Russell Wilson (now a CBS Sports analyst) actually suggested something similar in 2021 because he hates ties even more than the author! Wilson said, "We go into overtime and play the 10 minutes, and if no one scores, we all end in a tie and everyone goes home? How terrible is that?" Wilson wanted a set 53-yard kick, but kickers are so good now that it’s like a chip shot. Letting a team pick the distance adds strategy and insane suspense—just like penalty kicks!

Summary

The author is bored by ties and loves the crazy drama of soccer penalty kicks. The NFL already shortened regular-season overtime to 10 minutes to protect players, but games shouldn’t end in ties. To fix this, the NFL could either use a college-style two-point shootout after overtime or a brand-new field goal gamble where a coin toss decides the kick distance and the other team picks the kicker. Both ideas would bring soccer-style excitement and make sure someone always wins.

FAQ

1. What is a penalty kick in soccer?
A penalty kick is a close-range shot at the goal used to decide a winner when a game is tied after extra time. It’s super stressful and exciting, like being in a room with a ticking bomb!

2. Why doesn’t the NFL just play until someone wins like in the playoffs?
In playoffs, both teams get the ball and it can go to multiple overtimes. During the regular season, football is so physically hard on the body that making players play forever is unsafe. That’s why they shortened overtime to 10 minutes.

3. What is the "Field Goal Gamble"?
It’s a proposed rule where, if a game is tied after overtime, a coin toss lets one team pick how far away the kick should be, and the other team decides which kicker tries it. One kick decides the winner!

4. Has an NFL player ever suggested ending ties this way?
Yes! Russell Wilson, now at CBS Sports, suggested a similar idea in 2021 where a kicker would try a field goal to end the tie, because he thinks ties are terrible.

5. What happened in the Packers-Cowboys tie game?
In Week 4 last year, the Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys tied 40-40. It was a hugely watched game (26.9 million viewers), and under these new proposals, a kicker or two-point try would have decided a winner instead of leaving it a tie.