NFL

I agree with defeating the majority of the time, the one that i disagree with is when watching college football and a heavy underdog defers. By the time the second half comes around they are normally so far behind they would have been much better taking the ball to start which would take away a possesion for the opposing team and gives you a chance to build some momentum.

Deferring means you get the ball after the half so theoretically you could get two possessions in a row

Starting the second half with the ball, regardless of game script, probably feels a lot better. Especially if you're driving towards the end of the first half, you can control the ball and go for a back-to-back possession to score, or "lapping" the other team as some call it.

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

I’m pretty sure that it was BB who started this trend. My (admittedly sometimes faulty) memory is that he did it a couple times and Boston sports radio was up in arms about how dumb it was to let the other team score first and “set the tone”, then it became a “genius” thing that only he did, then everyone started doing it.

I’m not saying he is the first one to do it, but that he was the first to do it consistently and have success, leading to popularizing it.

I legit think it’s the madden era when this changed

I’ve been deferring since the sega genesis. It’s about time teams caught up

People have been taking the ball in the 2nd half for awhile now, the patriots did it all the time when they were dominating. Don’t know if they started the trend but I remember announcers back then talking about the possibility of scoring twice in a row

Teams didn’t have the option to defer until 2008. That’s when the change started.

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.

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.