Tie Ball Game

I was thinking this morning about the Superbowl. Not sure why, but I was. And I got to thinking about the one where that guy was a yard away from the touchdown, but he didn't get it in. If he had pushed that football one inch further, they would have won, but he didn't and they lost.

I love football, and I don't want to disrupt the sport at all, but it got me thinking. The point of the Superbowl is to say that this team is better than that team right? Well, what happens when the game ends in a tie? We go into overtime to decide who wins. Now, think about it. We don't go into overtime to decide who is better than the other, we go into overtime to decide who wins. There is a difference. I would really love it if we ended games in a tie. Even the Superbowl. No, especially the Superbowl. I think there is something to be said about two teams getting all the way to the final dance and playing their hearts out for hour after hour. If one team is unable to trump the efforts of the other team, maybe they should line up and say to each other, "Great job, we just couldn't beat you." If the Superbowl ended in a tie, I think it would be a more accurate analysis of the teams. Rather than going into overtime and having one team beat another team by an inch or two, we would say that both teams were equally strong.

Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad thing for football to get rid of overtime. If two teams finish the regulation time and the score is tied, that's that. Sure it's a bit like kissing your sister, but honestly, if one team can't beat the other in regulation, we should be able to say that they are equals.

I wonder what it says about American society that we refuse to allow games to end in a tie. Does it say anything? Does it say that we don't like people being equal? Or is that going too far?