Referees have repeatedly mishandled the overtime coin toss

The NFL’s new overtime rules for the 2025 regular season mean there's now a more complex strategic decision surrounding whether to kick or receive after winning the coin toss. The coin toss itself, however, is straightforward. Or at least it should be.

But NFL referees have repeatedly mishandled the coin toss to start overtime this season.

It happened again on Sunday night, at the start of overtime between the Commanders and Broncos. After the Commanders won the toss, captain Tress Way said, "We're gonna kick that way" and pointed in the direction he wanted to kick.

But the team winning the coin toss doesn't have that option. After choosing to kick or receive, it's the other team that decides which direction to go in. Referee Land Clark should have explained that to Way and then asked the Broncos which direction they wanted to go in.

Instead, Clark simply asked Way, "Kick that way?"

Way repeated, "Kick that way."

Clark then asked, "You're gonna kick?" and Way answered, "Yeah."

Clark then turned to Broncos captain Bo Nix and said, "You'll receive, this way," pointing Nix to the side of the field that Way preferred. Nix did not object.

Then Clark announced to the crowd, "Washington's choice: They will kick this way."

But that's not Washington's choice. Washington only had the choice to kick. Denver was supposed to have the choice which direction Washington would kick. It's possible that the Broncos wanted to go in that direction anyway and were fine with it, but Clark never should have said the direction was Washington's choice. It wasn't. It was Denver's choice.

And this is not the first time an NFL referee has mishandled the overtime coin toss. Two weeks ago, Panthers captain Bryce Young was also allowed to choose both to kick and the direction. Last week, Giants captain Russell Wilson won the overtime coin toss and said, "We want to kick the ball and we want to kick it that way." The referee did not correct him.

At the start of overtime in Germany, referee Clete Blakeman wrongly announced that the Colts were the visiting team and gave them the option to choose heads or tails. The Colts won the toss, Blakeman allowed the teams to make their choices, and then only after the broadcast went to a commercial did someone alert Blakeman that the Colts were actually the home team. Blakeman then called the team captains back to the middle of the field for another coin toss that the viewers at home never saw.

This isn't like missing a holding penalty, the type of call that is impossible to completely eliminate. This is about NFL referees understanding the basic mechanics of how to run the game. Mistakes like this should never happen. And yet they've been happening, over and over again.