And We Have a Tie!

We knew it wouldn't take long — and on Sunday night it happened.

Half a century ago, the Massachusetts Lottery held a weekly "game show," Big Money, on Wednesday evenings, in which one lucky contestant came away with a million dollars — about $5.6 million in today's money. The show was hosted by Tom Russell.

The rules of the game called for five Lee Meriweather clones to stand at the top of a spiral staircase, on lanes designated "M," "O," "N," "E," and "Y." Then one analog "spin" after another (after all, this was the '70s!) was made, and each of the tall, maxi-skirted ladies advanced anywhere from one to five steps, until at least one of them reached the "end zone" at the bottom. If two or more reached the latter on the same spin, whoever got further therein was the winner; but if two or more both reached the bottom and on the same space, Russell announced, "And we have a tie!" — and as many "spin-offs" were held until the winner was determined (neighboring Connecticut also had a weekly lottery "game show" during this period — Double Play — hosted by Dana Hersey).

There were five "cheering sections," corresponding to the letters of "MONEY," with each of the members of the fifth-place cheering section receiving $10, $20 for fourth place, $30 for third place, $40 for second place, and $50 for first place (spin-offs broke any ties) — after which one lucky member of the first-place cheering section was drawn at random to win $1 million (each cheering section had about 50 people in it).

On Sunday, the Dallas Cowboys and the Green Bay Packers played to a 40-40 tie after being tied 37-37 at the end of regulation (on October 16, 1964, the pre-merger AFL's Patriots and Raiders tied 43-43) — the first tie game in the NFL since the Giants and Washington knotted up at 20-20 on December 4, 2022. The Cowboys and Packers combined for 925 total yards and only one turnover (by Green Bay).

Projected over the course of an entire season, four tie games in four weeks adds up to either four or five tie games per year — but as the weather gets colder and the scores get lower, look for there to be about twice that many the rest of the way (the maximum number of tie games in any year since overtime was implemented in the regular season in 1974 has been two, which has happened five times — in 1986, 1997, 2016, 2018, and 2022).

Of course, now the overtime period has been shortened from 15 minutes to 10 minutes — with both teams guaranteed at least one possession in overtime, which is why there is obviously going to be more tie games.

The NFL can further benefit from more tie games by not counting them in calculating each team's winning percentage, as was the case prior to 1972; this was why, in 1949, the Rams won the Western Division title over the Bears with an 8-2-2 record (.800) to the latter's 9-3 (.750).

Another possibility is to use the CFL's point system, hijacked from the NHL, that awards two points for a win and one point for a tie — and, if at the end of the regular season, two or more teams have the same number of points, the team with the most wins finishes higher (do this, and when — not if, the 18-game schedule becomes a reality — a team that finishes with a 11-7 record will finish ahead of a team that finishes with a 10-6-2 record). Still another alternative is to award three points for a win and one point for a tie — as is done in soccer.

But whatever the NFL decides to do, it needs to take the tiebreakers as far out of the equation as possible ("strength of victory" is always getting confused with "margin of victory").

Say goodbye to the PFL — the Pythagorean Football League — and hello to an NFL that is far easier to understand.