Sudden death overtime was a great idea for its time. The invention of former commissioner Bert Bell (who, incidentally, suffered his own sudden death at the first game he attended following the epic 1958 NFL championship) added excitement to the sport by reducing the all-too-common kiss-your-sister anticlimax of two teams slugging it out for 60 minutes and then heading home having tasted neither victory nor defeat.

It worked well back in the age when field goals were much dicier propositions than they are today. But now, teams play overtime just to get into field goal position, scarcely risking a deeper advance toward a touchdown when any points will do.

That diminishes the drama and the platform for competition. It also deflates fans who held fast for four quarters of even battle, then often see their team lose the coin toss, surrender a few first downs, and start shaking hands after the ball flies over the crossbar.

My quick research shows that the Browns have taken 31 games into overtime, going 16-14-1. Of those contests, just eight ended with a touchdown.

Those rare game-ending TDs have included a fake field goal, three interceptions returns, and a flea-flicker.

While sudden-death has increasingly become a jockeying for field goal position, the system does have the advantage of being straightforward. So how best to improve the spirit of full, fair competition without unduly doctoring or lengthening the game?

Here’s my proposal:

— The winning team would be the first one to score five points in overtime.

— For regular season games, if neither team scores five in the 15-minute overtime, whichever team is ahead wins. If neither team is ahead, the game would end in a tie.

— Rather than tossing a coin, the visiting team would get first choice of a) kicking off or receiving, or b) picking which goal to defend.

— In the regular season, the entire overtime would have the same clock stoppage rules that apply during the final two minutes of the first half and five minutes of the second half (i.e. going out of bounds keeps it stopped until the next snap).

— In the regular season, rather than getting two timeouts, teams would carry over whatever timeouts remained from the second half. The two-minute warning would remain.

Such a system would greatly increase the incentive for teams to go for the gusto rather than settle for field goals (especially before fourth down). Eliminating the coin toss and the automatic two timeouts would help mitigate the lengthening of the game caused by requiring more points and stopping the clock on out-of-bounds.

These changes, unlike the NCAA’s artificial system, would still involve all phases of the game — offense, defense, special teams, and coaching (including clock management). They would improve the odds that each team would have an offensive possession, while keeping fan interest alive throughout, as any single play could still be the game’s last.

And that last play, more often than not, would be a touchdown.