NFL Changes Overtime Rules For Playoffs, Possibly Regular Season

The NFL Rules Committee - with a winning vote of 28-4 - has decided to change the overtime rules for the NFL Playoffs, with the regular season suggestion to be discussed during May meetings.

In the current rules, the team that scores first simply wins the game. The team that wins the coin toss is allowed to choose which unit they bring out onto the field, offense or defense, while the coin toss loser chose which end of the field to defend.

With the new rules the team that decides to receive the kick off at the beginning of overtime will have to score a touchdown in order to end the game. If they were to kick a field goal the opposing team would then get an opportunity to receive a kick off and put together a drive of their own. If they kick a field goal, we go to sudden death overtime. If they score a touchdown, good night, game over, put it in the books.

While Colin has always vehemently argued against a rules change to overtime, I’ve always thought it was a little squirrely and seemed like it wasn’t well thought out. Once the college game went to their version of overtime, it seemed like the pressure picked up to change the rules in the NFL. Colin constantly brings up the point that each team get 11-14 possessions a game and if they are unable to put a team away within those drives they deserve what is coming to them in overtime. I’ve always disagreed.

Not all overtime situations are the same. A team that battles back to tie the game at 31 at the end of regulation by using momentum to carry them to that point can kick off in over time, give up a return to the 35 yard line, have a defensive breakdown on 3rd-and-8 for a 25-yard slant and run, throw together a few short rush gains and lose on a 53-yard field goal without ever touching the ball.

It just doesn’t seem to make sense and when your season is only 16 games long, a loss in that manner can kill a team’s momentum for a playoff run or simply a prideful push for .500 for a perennial loser. My answer to the NFL’s overtime situation was very similar to that of the NFL’s.

While we may only see this rule come into affect once or twice during a season, it will change the game, in my belief, for the better. My reoccurring nightmare was a Super Bowl between two teams -like the Saints and Colts- that had been answering one another’s scores throughout the game until the fourth quarter. Then, in OT, the receiving tem returns a kick to the forty, the Colts or Saints convert on a couple questionable first downs and kick a 53-yarder to win the Championship 34-31 on a 2:37 drive.

At the very least, this allows me to sleep well in January.