American Football Coin Flip

Sunday night’s Divisional Round football game between the Bills and Chiefs was without a doubt, the most entertaining game of the year. It was two of the best teams going at it, for a chance to play in the AFC Championship game. It was so close of a game that many are claiming the coin flip to begin overtime determined the winner.

Josh Allen made the call of Tails. The game was so great and so back and forth that the coin flip seemed like an obvious heads call to me. Take heads, the ball, and go win. It was always heads. The coin landed on heads and the rest is history.

Had Josh Allen won the toss, I think the Bills would have stormed down the field and scored. The coin flip hasn’t had that much power since the 2018 Pats vs Chiefs AFC championship.

Both Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes were unstoppable. Neither defense was going to stop them. That coinflip could be the difference between a Superbowl parade for the Bills. I cannot imagine that pain as an organization, however, the Chiefs can.

The game may very well have come down to the specific ability of deciding a coin flip. These guys are athletes but not all visionaries.

I am not saying there should be any rule changes. The Chiefs won fair and square.

I think Josh Allen taking the coinflip was the right move, he is the clearcut leader of the Bills and Bills Mafia as a whole. I just wish he had seen the coin flip as Matthew Slater did on the same field just a few years ago. 

No to discredit to Allen, he had one of the better playoff performances I can think of, getting his 4th string receiver a 4-touchdown game. The only thing he didn’t get right, was, unfortunately, the coin flip.

This may prove how impactful a guy like Slater can be. He was out there to call the coin flip for a reason even with guys like Brady and Gronk on the sidelines. They always relied on Slater for the pivotal moment of the coin toss and to lead the special teams unit.

“HEADS, WE WANT THE BALL” 

A true legend of the game and of all Special teamers.

I was surprised when Allen said tails. I wonder If any of his Bills teammates were too. If they were, I don’t think they would care to say anything. He is the only reason they got to that point in the first place so it made sense for him to be the one to make the call. But, I do wonder what guys like Jordan Poyer or even Stefon Diggs were thinking in that moment.

Looking forward

This makes me curious about the art of the coin flip. Does Allen have a lot of experience in moments like that? I mean what’s the difference between that coinflip and a 1-million-dollar hand of Blackjack? Should NFL teams now look into hiring professional gamblers to make calls for them? No, but maybe going forward coinflips will be a point of emphasis. It is a part of the game, no matter how insignificant it may seem.

I do think there is something more to the coinflip than a simple guess. A little bit of purpose goes a long way.

For Mathew Slater, it was never random. He always calls heads. His dad Jackie Slater used to call coin flips in the NFL back in his day on the Rams, and he always called heads. It is a much deeper than a 50/50 draw for the coin toss legend, Matthew. “Christ is always at the head of my life, so I always call heads.”

Maybe the small act of having a purpose during the coinflip could be what separates the head from the tail. He believes that he is going to see a head when he walked out there and so often he did.

As for future coin flips, I want to see guys practicing the craft of heads or tails. Be one with the coin. Eat, sleep, and breath coin flips. It just may cost you a Superbowl ring.

For more follow me @JoelFlawless and @BellyUpSports.