Heads I Win, Tails You Lose

In sports, even the smallest competitive advantage can alter the outcome of a game. There isn't a team that would pass up any such opportunity. After a recently conducted study, a new advantage has been revealed - and as small as it may seem, could actually have some impact on NFL games.

Stanford and UC-Santa Cruz researchers have determined that, when flipped, a coin is more likely to land facing the same side on which it started.


Up until now, everyone has always assumed the fairest way to settle an dispute was to "flip for it" since it offered a 50-50 proposition.

Not anymore.

So how much more likely is it? The range varied, but the minimum was 51% with a maximum likeliness up to 60%.  That's higher than Derek Anderson's completion percentage!

If you want to check out their published findings, see how the study was conducted, observe the formulas and other mathematical hocus pocus, click here.

So what’s it mean for the NFL?

Well team captains should probably start paying a little more attention during overtime coin flips. Everyone has heard the stats on how vital it is to receive the OT kick first. With a quick peek of the coin as it sits on the refs' thumb, they can give their squad an advantage that may go a long way to winning the game.

But yeah, this is more of a 'fun fact' than any type of game changing study.

Unless they do away with the coin toss altogether and decide to shoot dice or do the "bubblegum, bubblegum in a dish..." way of deciding things or somethin'.

I've always been an "Inka Dink" man myself.