Aaron Rodgers miffed with result of overtime coin toss
Rodgers suggested he would’ve switched his call to heads and won the coin toss if he was given a chance to change his call after a failed first attempt at a coin flip.
Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports
Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers called tails and not one, but two, coin tosses by referee Clete Blakeman landed on heads to award the Arizona Cardinals the ball. Still, Rodgers contends the mistake still didn't give the Packers a fair shake.
Blakeman gave the Packers a second chance at the overtime coin toss after the first somehow didn’t flip at all. A flub of the overtime coin toss provided controversy to a wild game that needed none, but after the coin landed on heads both times, it dulled claims that either team was given an unfair shake. Still, Rodgers wasn’t happy with the result.
“Clete [Blakeman] had on heads, he was showing heads, so I called tails,” Rodgers said. “It didn’t flip. It just tossed it in the air and did turn over at all and just landed on the ground. So we obviously thought that that wasn’t right. He picked the coin up and flipped it to tails and then he flipped it without giving me a chance to make a re-call there. It was confusing.”
Evidently, Rodgers’ coin toss strategy is to call the side that referee isn’t showing and that would have worked if he was able to switch his call to heads with Blakeman showing tails.
“He was trying to avoid the embarrassment of what just happened and flip it quick,” Rodgers said.
While Rodgers wasn't happy with the result of the coin toss, a real controversy would have existed if the Arizona Cardinals originally won, but lost on a second toss. Especially considering it's arguable whether or not a second toss even needed to happen.
The NFL confirmed Sunday the coin doesn’t have to flip when it’s tossed in order for the result to count.
“There is nothing in the rule book that specifies this,” the NFL said in a statement. “But the referee used his judgment to determine that basic fairness dictated that the coin should flip for the toss to be valid. That is why he re-tossed the coin.”
Ultimately, it’s semantics and there would’ve been much more justifiable outrage from the Packers if the Cardinals were awarded the ball after an unfair coin toss. It’s tough to imagine that the NFL rule makers envisioned a scenario where the use of the word “toss” instead of “flip” would create a controversy.
Blakeman handled an odd situation in the most objectively fair way possible and was lucky that the same team won both tosses. Otherwise, he’d have more people than just Rodgers unhappy with the way things shook out.
Packers linebacker Clay Matthews said after the game that the NFL should switch to collegiate overtime rules after the Cardinals required only a handful of plays to win in overtime. For now, that controversy is a much more worthwhile complaint for the Packers.
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