After adjusting its extension rules several times in the past 10 years, the NFL may soon make another change to the rule book, except this time, the rule change would potentially revolutionize the way OT games are played.
According to Pro Football Talk, the Ravens proposed a rule based on a concept of “choice and choice”. Under this rule, which would add serious spice to overtime, one team would choose the yard line where the overtime campaign begins and the other team would choose whether to play in attack or defense.
For example, if Team A and Team B were playing in overtime and Team A won the coin toss, they would choose any point on the field where the first OT drive would start. If he chose the 10-yard line (90 yards away from the end zone), then Team B could choose whether to play in attack or defense. The extension in this proposal would be a period of sudden death of 10 minutes, which means that the first team to score would win the game (if nobody scores, the game ends in a draw).
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If Team B starts with the ball on its own 10-yard line and promptly goes to three and leaves, that would likely set up Team A with a solid field position and Team A would only need a field basket to win.
The proposal would not only add an extra element of excitement to the overtime, but would also negate the advantage that any team would gain by winning the OT draw. Less than 4% of games went into overtime last season (10 out of 256), so if the league is going to make a dramatic change, overtime looks like the place to do so.
If the 32 NFL owners are not ready to approve such a wild rule, the Ravens also have another OT rule in mind. In the other proposal, the overtime would be played in 7 minutes and 30 full seconds and the winning team after the clock reaches zero would be the winner of the game (if no one is winning, the game ties).
According to NFL.com, the league is also considering a rule that would simply change the current extension format back to sudden death. With three proposals on the table, it appears that the NFL is definitely seriously considering changing the rules of overtime.
For a proposal to become an NFL rule, it must obtain a “yes” vote from 24 of the league’s 32 owners at the next league meeting, which is scheduled for March 30-31 (if the owners cannot decide whether they like a new rule or not, they will sometimes postpone the vote until the spring meeting in May).
If any of these OT proposals ended up being voted on, it would be the third big shift to overtime in the past nine years.
In March 2012, the NFL modified the overtime with a rule change that guaranteed both teams possession of the ball, as long as the team that received the kick-off from overtime did not score a touchdown in their initial charge. Before this rule was instituted, the NFL’s extensions were sudden death, which means that the first team to score won the game, whether those points were by basket, safety or touchdown. The rule change in 2012 was actually implemented for the playoff games in 2010, but the NFL did not make it the rule for all games until two years later.
In 2017, the NFL shortened the 15-minute overtime to 10 minutes for pre-season and regular season games.
Changing overtime will not be the only thing the owners will talk about at the end of March. There is also a proposal that would give teams the option of trying to play from fourth to fifteen in the fourth period, instead of trying a side kick. To read more about this equally wild proposal, click here.