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).
Technically they’re not electing to kickoff, they’re deferring their choice to the second half, in which they do chose to receive. And the team that is forced to chose by the deferment always chooses the ball. So, nobody is actually choosing to kick.