Making Heads and Tails of the Jets - Patriots OT Coin Toss

This was the coin toss from the Patriots - Jets game. #NEvsNYJ https://t.co/afAXS15sY9
— NFL (@NFL) December 27, 2015

The Jets stunned the Patriots today in an overtime upset of 26-20, but something kind of bizarre started off the extra time that would carry them to victory. In the coin toss to determine possession for the (potential) touchdown-ending overtime, Patriots captain Matthew Slater chose heads, won the toss, bafflingly elected to kick, and then said, "don't we get to choose?" The result was a situation where it was unclear if Slater wanted to kick off, or was deciding which side to receive. The whole situation confused just about everyone and their moms.

To complicate things even further, the referee, Clete Blakeman, appeared to have suggested that Slater kick—before Slater even made his choice.

People took to Twitter to say that the Slater clearly hadn't chosen to kick—who would, if an opponent can win with one possession?—and that Blakeman chose for him, thus causing Slater to say, "Don't we get to choose [to receive]?" Other people thought that the coin toss had resulted in tails, and therefore was the Jets choice anyway.

Sports writer and TV analyst Adam Schefter came in to clean up the audio confusion:

The exchange that could help send the Jets to the playoffs… pic.twitter.com/5ErbnKUyfE
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) December 27, 2015

It appears that Slater did indeed choose to kick—and that Blakeman did ask a suggestive question: if they wanted to kick—but that their words kind of blended into each other, thus confusing everyone.

Slater told ESPN after the game,

It seems that Slater was confused about whether or not he got to elect which side to kick from—on top of choosing to kick. But Bill Simmons came in to clear up that situation too.

1. Winner of coin toss can choose to kick, receive OR which direction to go. Slater chose to kick AND picked the direction. Can't do both.
— Bill Simmons (@BillSimmons) December 27, 2015

As for the coin, it turns out that NFL coins on the heads side can look pretty funky—kind of like the eagle on the back of a quarter—and so it's very probable that Blakeman got the toss correct.

In the end, it seems that the Patriots coaching staff just made a ludicrous decision to kick, and Slater thought they got to choose which side to kick from. What happened in between, though, sure confused the hell out of everyone for a minute there. Whew! It just turns out the Patriots are stupid. Thank God.

UPDATE:

The Jets have a pretty good social media team.

Agreed. https://t.co/LVQVwVZlsL
— New York Jets (@nyjets) December 27, 2015