For much of the Week 1 matchup between the LA Rams and Detroit Lions, nothing about the game disappointed. Against all odds, LA fought back to briefly take a 20-17 lead with just under five minutes to play before Detroit tied it. The stage was set for a thrilling finish—until the NFL’s evil overtime rules reared their ugly head.

Unlike the postseason playoff rules, where both offenses get a chance even if the first team scores a touchdown, the regular season rules dictate that the game is over once the first team scores a touchdown. Is it just me, or is that a bit anticlimactic?

Luckily, I wasn’t the only one bothered by the NFL’s stupid overtime rules:

All the drama and fanfare was sucked out of the stadium when the Lions won the coin toss. The NBC broadcast repeatedly caught glimpses of Matthew Stafford and Cooper Kupp looking helpless on the sideline as David Montgomery’s score seemed increasingly inevitable. It’s hard not to feel sympathy for them after their second-half heroics nearly secured a crucial victory for the Rams to start the 2024 season.

Considering the way the NFL bends over backwards to create rules that favor the offense, it’s baffling that they haven’t changed the overtime rules to give both teams a chance. I mean, they changed them in the playoffs, shortly after the 2021 Bills-Chiefs Divisional Round shootout, but not in the regular season.

So why not have the same rules for both the playoffs and the regular season? It almost makes too much sense, right? No team should be rewarded for winning a coin toss. I would be saying exactly the same thing if LA had done this. What the NFL is indicating is that only one set of games is clearly more important than the other.

Every game during the NFL season is important, especially one that features two presumptive NFC contenders this early in the season. This game will likely play a prominent role in the NFC playoff picture later in the year, making it all the more painful that Stafford and Co. won’t get a chance to match Jared Goff and the Lions.

While this loss was hard to swallow, LA didn’t lose because of the current overtime rules. Those rules simply didn’t do them any favors. Stafford failed to connect with Kupp on a crucial third-and-10 on a potential game-sealing drive before the Lions took the field to tie the game at 20-20. The Rams had a chance to put the game away in regulation time and failed.

That still doesn’t excuse the fact that football fans everywhere feel like they were robbed of an all-time finish. The NFL overtime rules need to be changed in a way that’s fair to both offenses involved.

Also, the league needs to change the rules to screw the 49ers over again. If not for the Rams, then please do something to screw the Whiners, that’s all I’m asking.