SUDDEN DEATH

I watched a football game last Sunday night that changed my opinion of sudden death instantaneously.

Just like that.

In the NFL, if the game is tied at the end of regulation you play sudden death overtime. There is a coin toss to determine who gets the ball first. If that team drives down the field and scores a touchdown, the game is over. So it's possible that the opposing team can lose the game without ever touching the ball in OT.

I have always loved that. It's a big boy sport, it is a brutal sport - it is a harsh and unforgiving sport.

The playoffs are tough. You lose one game, you go home. After all the work you put into the season, after all the injuries and bruises and pain - you make it to the playoffs - you lose - you're done.

I have always liked that as well. Baseball, hockey, basketball - in general - you lose once, you get at least three more chances. Of course that best of seven format is impossible with football, so it is what it is.

The Bills and the Chiefs played an epic game last Sunday night. The entire game was fantastic. Back and forth and up and down - the competition was spectacular. The last two minutes of regulation were mind blowing - they scored so many points in two minutes that the scoreboard was smoking.

One of the best football games I have ever seen in 58 years of watching football.

They were tied at the end of regulation. The Chiefs won the coin toss and marched down the field and scored a touchdown in OT. Boom - the Bills were done.

The camera panned over to Josh Allen's face, the Bill's quarterback, as he sat on the bench in stunned silence. I will never forget "that look" - his face was blank. Not just emotion-less, it was if the Devil stole his soul, ripped all life and hope away from him - suddenly and without prior notice -  and left a lifeless husk behind.

It was awful.

He played his heart out. He played with total confidence, no fear - he displayed every bit of skill and knowledge he had accumulated in a lifetime of playing football - and he lost a Division Playoff Game in overtime without ever having the ball in his hands.

The Bills deserved the chance to defend themselves - to get out on the field one more time and deal to the Chiefs whatever miracle was still left within the Bill's grasp and imagination.

It didn't happen. They didn't get the chance.

This Sunday the Chiefs play for the chance to go to Super Bowl LVI. The Bills will be home watching the game.

This is wrong. It's fucking evil.

The NFL needs to change the OT rules. Especially for playoff games. You cannot lose the game without ever touching the ball.

Josh Allen is 25 years old. He will get another shot at making it to the Super Bowl. Maybe.

As I said, this is a harsh sport. The odds against making it to a Super Bowl are overwhelming. Many tremendous athletes never got a chance to play in a Super Bowl.

Think about that. From the moment you handle a football and make a conscious decision that playing in the NFL is your life's goal - winning the Super Bowl is the ultimate prize. It is the reason you work so hard, and sacrifice your body and your health and any shot at a normal family life.

To have a chance of achieving that goal ripped out of your hands because of arbitrary overtime rules is heinous.

I am confident Josh Allen will make it to the Super Bowl one day.

But if he doesn't, last Sunday night's game will play over and over again in his worst nightmare like the movie reel from hell.