You know what I like about the NFL's overtime system? It's still football. The same things you've been doing for the last 60 minutes, you're going to have to continue to do if you want to win. It's not some bastardized form of the game, like we see in hockey or college football.

Never in a football game does anyone just hand you the football at the opponent's 25-yard-line. You've got to earn it. You've got to force a turnover at that part of the field, you'll need a big special teams play, or you'll have to drive the ball down there. That's how it goes.

At no point will anyone ever pat you on the head and say, "Hey there, Timmy! Would you like to be knocking on the door of the opponent's red zone? Follow me, special friend!" That's not football, that's charity. That's something they'd do in a pee-wee league game if the sad and pathetic team couldn't score. Don't let it near the NFL.

Now, at the same time, I'll admit that the current overtime system isn't perfect. I think it's good. Not great, not perfect ... but good. The NFL's competition committee is looking at a potential rule change this week.

I see it like Tony Dungy sees it. Regardless of the coin toss, if you want to win, your team's going to have to play good football, be it offensively or defensively.

My one issue with the current system is that it's a little too easy to play for a field goal. If you get a decent kick return, you're looking at maybe 30 or so yards before you can get your kicker in range. I'd rather see an honest drive, and if a team has to settle for a field goal, so be it, but rarely in the course of a football game does a team make it their goal to get three.

How do we accomplish that? Eight-minute overtime. Eight minutes, and no timeouts for either side. Here's why eight's my number. I want to avoid the games getting too long, so I don't want to see a full quarter. Eight's a little over halfway.

More importantly, eight minutes is also about the unofficial cut-off for "Damn, that was a long drive." If your defense can't get the other team off the field in eight minutes, you don't deserve a possession. At the very least, I feel more comfortable telling a team they don't deserve a possession under those circumstances than I would telling a team they don't deserve a possession because they let Peyton Manning gain 35 yards on a drive and get into field goal range.

I don't think eight minutes asks a defense to do anything too spectacular. And if they can't handle it, the offense is going to get a chance.

And after eight minutes, if no one has scored, then we go to another coin flip for sudden death, or we just call it a tie. Really, what's so bad about a tie? Ties are interesting. They shake up the standings a little bit. I don't think there's anything wrong with a good tie every now and then.

But if you're a tie-hater, I guess I can understand that, and we'll accommodate you by adding the sudden death overtime back on to the top of the eight-minute overtime. You lose then, and you don't get to complain, because you had your chance in the eight-minute overtime.

To me, if the competition committee insists on discussing this, those are the two options: set a fixed amount of time for an overtime to last, or leave things as they are. Please do not give us a gimmicky, stat-inflating, unnatural deal like they have in college football.

Related: NFL League Issues