Q: Should OT be fair?
A: Yes, no sporting event makes sense if you are not giving teams equal chances to start with.
Q: Is the OT system fair?
A: No, for the cointoss decides which team has the largest chance of winning.
Q: Why is there an OT system in the first place?
A: American Football is designed as a spectators sport, allowing ties would stimulate 2 teams to simply stop trying to win if they both would equally gain from a tie (soccer syndrome).
Q: What is the reluctance in changing the OT rule?
A: Television due to unpredictability estimated time the game would take.
Q: What would be fair?
A: Plenty of other solutions have been thought up, that could work. NFL experimented with a different model in NFL Europe.
Q: What was the NFL Europe model?
A: NFL Europe had a system which was fair and made OT extremely exiting for the fans. The system was; game extended for 10 minutes, first team to be ahead after both teams have had possesion of the ball at least once, wins, after that both teams get an additional attempt untill time runs out, team to be ahead after equal attempts win, game is a tie if time runs out. In the entire history of NFL Europe (13 seasons) only 2 games ended in a tie.
Q: Why was it not implemented in the NFL?
A: The system was voted down because of the television issues, as a result they tested an equal posession once suddendeath thereafter model without cointoss (ball goes to original toss winner), that system was voted down because of television issues as well.