The NFL is in its second year of its current overtime format, but some players still haven’t learned the rules. And Chiefs captain Patrick Mahomes tried to take advantage of that on Sunday night.
Colts captain Cam Bynum called tails on the overtime coin toss, and when it came up tails, he had the choice to kick, receive or pick a goal to defend. But Bynum chose none of those, instead saying “defer.”
Deferring is only an option for the pre-game coin toss, when the team that wins the toss can choose to defer its choice of kicking or receiving until the second half kickoff. Deferring is not an option before overtime.
As soon as Mahomes heard Bynum’s mistake, he yelled to referee Craig Wrolstad, “They get the ball!” Mahomes figured that if Bynum was going to defer the Colts’ choice, then the Chiefs would make their choice, which was to kick off and get the ball second in overtime.
Unfortunately for Mahomes, Wrolstad asked Bynum follow-up questions until Bynum understood.
“Would you like the ball? Would you like the ball? Would you like to play defense?” Wrolstad asked Bynum.
Eventually, Bynum said the Colts wanted to start on defense — which is technically not a choice at the start of overtime, but Wrolstad knew Bynum meant the Colts wanted to kick off, and Wrolstad accepted that.
“Indianapolis won the toss, they would like to play defense,” Wrolstad announced to the crowd.
After the game, Mahomes confirmed that he was trying to take advantage of Bynum’s mistake.
“You’re supposed to say kick off. You can’t defer in overtime. If you defer, then it’s my decision. So I was like, then I want to kick off,” Mahomes said. “You’re supposed to say kick off, he said defer, so I said, Well, I’ll kick off then. That’s the rules, I guess, but it didn’t work.”
Mahomes credited Mike Frazier, the Chiefs’ longtime statistical analysis coordinator, for making sure the Chiefs’ players always know exactly what their options are in such situations. Mahomes knew the rule, and Bynum didn’t.
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