It seems the overwhelming trend now when winning the opening toss is to elect to kick. My recollection of the 80s and 90s was that teams elected to receive. I’m not sure when this changed or why. Any thoughts on why and when it changed?

Also, is this maybe a Mandela effect where we are remembering history wrong (other fans I’ve asked recall the same thing in the 80s).

  • hausermaniac@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    Taking this thread as an opportunity to plug my overtime rule change proposal:

    Whichever team receives the opening kickoff also receives the OT kickoff

    Incentives teams to receive the opening kickoff, since as OP mentioned basically every team defers now, and also at the end of regulation both teams know who will be getting the ball in OT, so it might influence end-of-game decision making