The National Football League (NFL) employs a coin toss at the beginning of each game to determine initial possession and field direction.
Here’s how the NFL coin toss works
- Participants: The referee meets with captains from both teams. [Up to six captains per team may participate according to NFL Operations].
- The Call: The visiting team’s captain calls “heads” or “tails” before the coin is flipped.
- The Toss: The referee flips a coin (often a simple quarter or a specially designed game coin).
- Winner’s Options: The captain of the team that wins the toss has a few choices:
– Kick off: Start the game on defense.
– Receive: Start the game on offense.
– Defer: Delay their choice until the start of the second half.
– Choose a goal (direction): Select which end of the field they wish to defend in the first quarter.
- Loser’s Option: The team that loses the toss gets the remaining option.
- Deferring: Most winning teams choose to defer to the second half, opting to receive the ball after halftime.
- Receiving: This strategy allows them the potential to score points immediately after the half, and they might have a chance to score at the end of the first half and then again at the start of the second.
- Kicking: Choosing to kick first is less common but can be advantageous for teams with a strong defense or if weather conditions (like wind) favor kicking in a particular direction in later quarters.
- Regular Season: In the regular season, if a game is tied after regulation, a coin toss is held to determine the initial possession in a 10-minute overtime period. Each team gets two timeouts. If the score is still tied after 10 minutes, the game is recorded as a tie.
- Playoffs: In the playoffs, games cannot end in a tie. There are changes to the overtime rules to ensure both teams have an opportunity to possess the ball. Overtime periods are 15 minutes long. If the game remains tied after each team has possessed the ball, sudden death rules apply until a winner is determined. Each team gets three timeouts per two overtime periods.
- Super Bowl: The Super Bowl overtime rules are the same as playoff overtime rules. Super Bowl LVIII was played under the NFL’s current playoff overtime rules. The Kansas City Chiefs won the toss, deferred, and ultimately won the game.
Does the NFL still do a coin toss?
From my experience, While the Super Bowl is played at a neutral site each year, there are still “home” and “away” teams. Just like all other NFL games, the away team gets to choose between heads and tails for the opening coin toss.
How does the coin toss work in the NFL?
I can help with that. When the coin toss is called, the winning team can pick whether they want to kick or receive the ball to start off the game. Oftentimes, the winning team will let the losing team pick instead.
Has there ever been a coin toss in the NFL?
Across the first 58 Super Bowls, the coin toss landed tails 30 times and heads 28 times. The longest ever streak for one result went from Super Bowl XLIII to Super Bowl XLVII, when it landed heads five straight times. There have been three stretches in which the Super Bowl coin toss landed tails four straight times.
What was the coin toss for today’s Super Bowl?
That meant they got to call the toss on Sunday. And they were correct with Chris Jones’ choice of tails. The Chiefs won the toss and opted to defer for those of you who might have an interest in these things.