NFL

76 readers

7 users here now

A place for NFL news, game highlights and everything that excites you about American Football.

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

communick@nfl.community

rglullis

Coin Toss Has Flipped (alien.top)

submitted 11 months ago by SPEEDYTBC@alien.top to c/nfl@nfl.community

12 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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).

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] MyKidsArentOnReddit@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

Before 2008 the coin toss winner got to choose between receiving the ball or deciding which end of the field to defend. The other team got the same option for the second half. Most teams obviously chose to receive the ball because why would you not? In 2008 the NFL added the option to defer - the winner got to make their choice in the second half and the loser got the first half.

MMQB has an article on the change. It started slowly (as all things do in life). The first coach to almost always defer was Bill Belichick. In 2011 and 2012 people started noticing and numbers jumped. By now it's pretty much the default option for every coach in the league.