The logic of kicking off first.

[MakePlaysOrDie]

I always kick off if I win the coin toss. It gives you more options in the 2nd quarter. If its a close game lets say 14-10 and you have the ball, drive the field and score a td. 17-10. Then you get the ball right back and could push your lead to 20-10 or 24-10. That's a comfortable 2 score lead either way.

I'm also pretty good at defense so 9/10 I get the ball back when I kickoff at the beginning of the game.

[ACardAttack]

The only time I like to receive first is if I'm a clear underdog, I like to start the game off on my own terms to try and dictate the pace

[Ceelo325ci]

In real-life, if your team is on the road, you do not want your first offensive possession w/ the home crowd rabid and disruptive. You want the first possession in the 2nd half when the fans are still in the concession stands...

[EarvGotti]

Always kick off first.

1) It allows you to get an early feel for your opponent's offense and what they like to do. This allows you to adjust earlier in the game.

2) Getting ball back at half is kind of like a stop. With it being hard to stop people in this game, it's good to have that guaranteed stop there.

3) In a lot of games, whoever has ball last will win the game.

[Lzydd]

It's the number of possessions that dictates what you should do. Think of it this way:

If you receive the opening, the best situation you can have after is an each team having the same number of possessions following the second half kickoff. That is, you either had the ball to end the 1st half, but are kicking in the second (so the difference is zero) or your opponent ended with the ball in the first half and is receiving to being the second (-1). Of course it follows that the worst situation a team that kicks in the first half can have is that they are even in the number of possessions.

[CIMT4L]

As someone above said, I'm pretty confident in my defense to get a stop on the first possession, so I like the possibility that I will score near the end of the first half, and will shortly get the ball back at the beginning of the second half to increase my lead. The 3rd quarter is consistently my best quarter, so just another reason I like the ball first then.

[richmondn96]

Does anyone know what deferring actually means? Why not just choose to kick? Or is it like saying "we don't care"?

[gatorsinRENO]

Yea, you can defer to 2nd half, basically saying that you aren't making a choice. the other team then gets to choose if they want the ball or not. you can actually choose not to receive the kickoff at all, but I can't remember when that was ever done