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Published Monday, November 17, 2008

Eagles, Bengals not first to settle for a tie

In Sunday’s slate of National Football League contests, something occurred in a game that doesn’t happen often and would be something the late George Carlin would have loved in his rationale for sports.

For the first time since the Atlanta Falcons and Pittsburgh Steelers met in 2002 at Heinz Field, an NFL game ended in a tie.

After four quarters of regulation time, the Philadelphia Eagles and Cincinnati Bengals were in a 13-13 stalemate and after 15 more minutes were unable to settle the issue of winning a game.

When the post-game press conferences were conducted, many players didn’t know of games ending in ties and were dumbfounded that while they didn’t lose a game, they didn’t win it either.

"I've never been part of a tie. I never even knew it was in the rule book,” were part of the comments of Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb. “ I was looking forward to getting the opportunity to get out there and try to drive to win the game. But unfortunately with the rules, we settled with a tie."

McNabb concluded his comments with the statement “we know the rule now” which should calm the nerves of Eagles fans.

Prior to the 1974 season, a tie could be found on a regular basis for most teams in the NFL and the only games that featured an overtime period were playoff games.

As for the Carlin involvement, he said that football was compartmentalized into a timespan and the game would not go over the time limit.

Prior to Sunday, the Falcons and Steelers fought to a 34-34 tie in 2002 with the latter narrowly kept out of the end zone as time expired in a game that was exciting from start to finish.

Over the past 34 years, the number could be counted on two hands and a foot.

Seriously, there have been 17 games in the NFL that have failed to determine a winner and ended in a tie.

The first tie came in 1974 when the Pittsburgh Steelers and Denver Broncos fought to a 35-35 tie in a season that would become memorable for the Steelers as they won their first Super Bowl.

There have been the comical games such as when Gus Frerotte butted his head on a concrete surface in a 1997 game for the Washington Redskins while the ridiculous made a visit in 1983 when Neil O’Donoghue of the St. Louis Cardinals missed three field goal attempts in the only tie ever to be seen on Monday Night Football.

Of those who have a tie, the Green Bay Packers now share the number with four games that resulted in draws while the Falcons are in a group of eight teams that played to a tie in two games.

Besides the tie with the Steelers, the Falcons played to a 10-10 tie in 1986 with the San Francisco 49ers for the only tie of the latter’s ledger.

The other members of this “elite” group are the Arizona Cardinals when they were in St. Louis, Denver Broncos, Kansas City Chiefs, Minnesota Vikings, New York Giants, New York Jets and the Steelers.

The Bengals joined a cast of one tie teams that includes the Baltimore Ravens, Cleveland Browns, Detroit Lions, Indianapolis/Baltimore Colts, Miami Dolphins, St. Louis/Los Angeles Rams, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the aforementioned Redskins.

The oddity in the tie of the Colts was that it was in 1982 against the Packers and the 20-20 draw was the only non-loss suffered by the Baltimore club in the nine-game season created by a players strike.

The remaining 12 franchises of the NFL have not played to a tie since the 1974 rule was implemented (knock on wood).

However, we can honestly tell the members of those clubs that there is a consequence for not scoring either in four 15-minute quarters or ONE 15-minute overtime.

The game can end in a TIE.

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