OT Coin Toss Rules

[reuben.ahmed]

The NFL rule book contains detailed instructions for a coin toss but does not mention a requirement that it flip.

[WiregrassBenGal]

Yes, so the Packer fans are going to be moaning and groaning about that through next year. Of course, their defense should have stopped Carson and Larry.

[BonnieBengal]

(01-17-2016, 07:16 AM)reuben.ahmed Wrote: The NFL rule book contains detailed instructions for a coin toss but does not mention a requirement that it flip.

That looked really fishy to me.

[*Nately120*]

It took some serious balls to tell the home team going into OT in a playoff game that the winning coin flip didn't count. I don't know how classy Cardinals fans are, but there could have been a full-scale riot if the Cardinals didn't win both "flips." I'd have started to believe the "the NFL fix is on for the favorite teams" narrative.

[reuben.ahmed]

It was a funny flip, especially in ESPN's slow motion replays where you saw Rodgers eye the coin the whole time as it fell - and how the coin just jittered back and forth but didn't flip (are we watching a movie?).    I imagined some dramatic music being played in the background.

Hilariously, I tried flipping a quarter on my carpet. I was successfully able to get the coin to not flip in mid air, but there was no real control of what happened once it landed. Is this to say, in whatever turf/grass is on an NFL field, when the coin lands, it likely won't flip with the impact? Strange stuff. I'd love to get a hold of that cool looking coin they use to flip, it seems to be cased with another material. I wonder if it has the home team's logo on it.

According to Rodgers he did flip it to Tails on the next toss, and proved it does flip over to Heads (i.e. he lost the toss), but I wonder how many coin tosses have occurred where the coin didn't flip and it was not noticed by any side.

I imagined the rules would get weird if it says "Must flip at least once", or then "at least twice", etc. People would have to watch for it, and then people would think the ref purposefully flipped it only once.

The last thing is, if the coin is not required to flip, then the ref wasn't required to re-toss it. Really hilarious stuff going on in the NFL these days.

[*Awful Llama*]

That was the damndest thing. Then they go to the up close slow-mo shot. I thought they revolutionized the sport with pylon cam, but until I saw that coin not flip, I hadn't really seen the sport. Or it was all a buncha bs. Six of one....

[*Nately120*]

(01-17-2016, 10:59 AM)reuben.ahmed Wrote: It was a funny flip, especially in ESPN's slow motion replays where you saw Rodgers eye the coin the whole time as it fell - and how the coin just jittered back and forth but didn't flip.

Hilariously, I tried flipping a quarter on my carpet. I was successfully able to get the coin to not flip in mid air, but there was no real control of what happened once it landed. Is this to say, in whatever turf/grass is on an NFL field, when the coin lands, it likely won't flip with the impact? Strange stuff. I'd love to get a hold of that cool looking coin they use to flip, it seems to be cased with another material. I wonder if it has the home team's logo on it.

According to Rodgers he did flip it to Tails on the next toss, and proved it does flip over to Heads (i.e. he lost the toss), but I wonder how many coin tosses have occurred where the coin didn't flip and it was not noticed by any side.

I imagined the rules would get weird if it says "Must flip at least once", or then "at least twice", etc. People would have to watch for it, and then people would think the ref purposefully flipped it only once.

Not to get all conspiracy on things, but it's possible to actually purposefully flip a coin so it lands a certain way.  It takes lots of practice, and really isn't a practically thing BUT that's why the rules of coin flips used to be "CALL IT WHILE IT IS IN THE AIR, right?  If the flipper knows what he wants the outcome to be before he flips it, he can influence what comes up with more than a 50% probability; ergo, it's only a 50-50 chance if he wants it to be.

Back in my "gaming days" before I was way cool like I am now I knew some "power gamers" who would practice rolling dice.  One guy had this system where he would always place the dice face up in his palm, one at a time, with a certain side facing up every time and then flip it in such a way that he had a much better chance of it landing as he wanted due to reducing the amount of shaking and variability that went on.  People who didn't want to cheat or bend the rules would grab the die, or dice, cup their hands around it, and shake and roll.

So this sounds absurd, but if you think back to old Yatzhee sets you had to roll the dice all at once, and they would come with a "rolling cup" which, when used correctly would obscure the dice while they were being jostled and make you roll them all at once.  The NFL coin flip's rules go against the nature of fair probability:


1.  the ramifications of the outcome are known BEFORE the toss is made
2.  the coin can be seen BEFORE it is tossed and is placed in a certain manner (heads up, correct?)
3.  only one variable (a single coin) is tossed, thus reducing the amount of variability

Anyways, I'm sure someone who knows more about math can explain this better, but for something with so much riding on it the NFL coin toss is oddly been altered to reduce the chance factor.

[Beaker]

(01-17-2016, 10:15 AM)TreasureCoastBenGal Wrote: Yes, so the Packer fans are going to be moaning and groaning about that through next year.  Of course, their defense should have stopped Carson and Larry.

No they won't...the Packers won the re-flip anyway.

[*Nately120*]

(01-17-2016, 11:14 AM)Beaker Wrote: No they won't...the Packers won the re-flip anyway.

Cardinals?

[Marlon23]

The NFL is like the WWE lately.

[StoneTheCrow]

(01-17-2016, 10:15 AM)TreasureCoastBenGal Wrote: Yes, so the Packer fans are going to be moaning and groaning about that through next year.  Of course, their defense should have stopped Carson and Larry.

There was no stopping Larry. I haven't seen a player take over a game and win it for his team like that since Urlacher in the "they are who we thought they were" game. I hope AJ was watching. I'm not knocking AJ in the slightest, that was just next-level stuff. 

[*Nately120*]

(01-17-2016, 11:57 AM)StoneTheCrow Wrote: There was no stopping Larry. I haven't seen a player take over a game and win it for his team like that since Urlacher in the "they are who we thought they were" game. I hope AJ was watching. I'm not knocking AJ in the slightest, that was just next-level stuff. 

The guy is like the Marino of WRs, or something.  Of course some Cardinals fans were spending the offseason wondering if he were really elite enough to keep around, similar to AJ at times. 

[jfkbengals]

(01-17-2016, 07:16 AM)reuben.ahmed Wrote: The NFL rule book contains detailed instructions for a coin toss but does not mention a requirement that it flip.

It is implied in the definition of coin toss, i.e. it is synonymous with coin flip.

[CageTheBengal]

It's called flipping the coin. If the coin doesn't flip you just threw it on the ground.

Also how is anything rigged? The camera showed the coin didn't flip and then they flipped it it and it still ended up in the Cardinals favor. We saw everything that happened and yet it's a conspiracy.

[*Nately120*]

(01-17-2016, 12:39 PM)CageTheBengal Wrote: It's called flipping the coin. If the coin doesn't flip you just threw it on the ground.

Also how is anything rigged? The camera showed the coin didn't flip and then they flipped it it and it still ended up in the Cardinals favor. We saw everything that happened and yet it's a conspiracy.

I never said it was a conspiracy, but you have to admit that telling the ref what you want the outcome to be BEFORE he flips it takes some of the chance out of it.

[reuben.ahmed]

Yep. But I guess in the definition of a coin flip, part of the "rules" is announcing it during or before-hand. I just think the slow motion imagery of rogers watching the coin not flip and it not actually flipping was...flipping hilarious.

I'm done researching interesting information about this, lol. It looks like with a little practice, you can actually flip a coin at a 45 degree angle, have it wobble quickly left to right, to give the perspective that it's flipping, but it's actually not - lol.

It is pretty easy to see if a coin flips or not, I just wouldn't imagine watching it in the air. On a side note I wonder if he has super human vision or something, I wouldn't rule it out - Jordan has like 20/10 vision. I wonder what that's like lol.

[McC]

(01-17-2016, 07:16 AM)reuben.ahmed Wrote: The NFL rule book contains detailed instructions for a coin toss but does not mention a requirement that it flip.

How lame is a grown man who can't even toss a coin?

[*Nately120*]

(01-17-2016, 12:59 PM)McC Wrote: How lame is a grown man who can't even toss a coin?

Not to mention being an NFL ref involves flipping a coin as part of your job.

[BeepBeepWoo]

People are just crazy about everything being a conspiracy lately. It's clearly a conspiracy.

[McC]

(01-17-2016, 01:01 PM)Nately120 Wrote: Not to mention being an NFL ref involves flipping a coin as part of your job.

It defies logic and practically defies physics.   It's almost impossible to do.