How readers would change the NFL overtime rules

How should the NFL change its overtime rules? Or should things remain the same?

I wrote about this a couple of weeks ago, and some readers were nice enough to chime in with a wide variety of suggestions.

• A popular solution was to play another 15-minute quarter. If the score remains deadlocked in a regular-season game the game ends in a tie. But what happens in the postseason? There were no easy answers for that scenario.

• Marc Botsford of Barrington wants the game to continue "as is" after regulation. In other words, if a team faces third-and-5 at their own 40-yard line and time runs out, the game clock would be turned off and play continues until there is a winner. (I would put 15 minutes on the clock and if nobody scores the game ends in a tie).

"This will obviously change strategy as the fourth quarter winds down," Botsford wrote. "But the team that has the momentum and field position at the end of the fourth quarter is not penalized by going to a coin flip. (Also), the team that has no momentum and possibly very poor field position ... is not rewarded by going to a coin flip."

• Tom Griffin of Mt. Prospect wants an element of risk to be associated with taking the ball if you win the coin toss. Instead of starting at the 25-yard line, make teams start at the 10. Maybe, for some teams, it's better to start on defense under this scenario.

"If a team wins the coin toss and elects to receive, they now have to go ninety yards for a winning touchdown," Griffin wrote. "That's a long way. That's a risk. They may be able to get a field goal, but that won't win the game. If they have to punt from the 10, they're going to give the other team good field position. A choice has to be made." (If the first team scores a FG, the second also must start at the 10).

• Bob Hammerl of Arlington Heights suggested giving the first team to score in regulation the tiebreaker edge by giving them the ball to start overtime. We may see more winners of the opening coin flip take the ball to start games rather than deferring to the second half. Hammerl pointed out it could affect early game strategy as well. "Should we go for it on fourth-and-1 at our own 45 and the score 0-0?" Hammerl wrote.

• My personal favorite, suggested by quite a few of you, is to give each team the ball at the 50-yard line. One reader says teams must get a first down before attempting a field goal.

In the regular season, I would declare a tie if the score is still even after three overtimes. I'd also force teams to go for the 2-point conversion on touchdowns in the second or third OT.

All great thoughts. Thanks to all of you who chimed in.