NFL to Change Overtime Rules for Playoff Games?

“It’s a good idea and the NFL should only implement it for playoff games”. But now I think why not in all games? Won`t hurt competitiveness IMO. It`s irrelevant but I know at least one team sport to recently eschew the sudden death rule in the OT and that is soccer.

…..if you lose the toss simply stop the other team….You know what you have to do win or lose the toss…….So if you lose just stop them and get the ball back and score your self….Simple as that.

Have a blind bidding system where the coaches each write down what yard they want to start on and the one closest to their own endzone gets the ball first.

So if the game is a real defensive battle, first coach might put in 40 yard line and the other puts in 45 yard line. The first coach gets the ball first at the 40. If it is an offensive back and forth, they might put in 20 or 15 yard line thinking that they will score regardless of feild position.

btw is the SB set up the same way as the rest games are?? if no one scores its a tie?? b/c that would really blow

I think it is far to easy, for the team who gets the ball first, to win in sudden death OT…..not just in the playoffs, but also in the regular season. I understand that the original sudden death rule was created in interest of constraining the amount of time it takes to play a full game, but if the regular season record is going to have effect on whether or not a team makes the playoffs, the sudden death rule seems a bit unfair (especially considering the power and accuracy of most NFL level kickers these days). I believe that forcing teams to score a TD to win in OT would make the games more interesting, competitive, and ultimately fair and square.

I think that it should be each team gets the ball at least once, regardless of who scores first and if it’s a TD or not. This way each team gets to use special teams (during the return) offense, and defense. I think this is the most fair way, given that each team has different strengths and weaknesses.

First to score to: you can’t kick a FG to win.

That way, the teams gotta go for it on 4th down, but you still can have defensive score to win like Arizona.

As long as they work out any kinks.

the overtime now is really what the players and coaches who know what they are talking about want. Its fast. Teams that go to overtime lose like 65% of the following games. beacuse they get more beat up and more tired. it just sucks for the fans. But, it makes alot of sense. if you wann be successful don’t play a whole period and get your team killed.

Keep the format the same. But, instead of giving a team the advantage of choosing to start with the ball based on a coin toss, let teams earn that advantage in regulation time.

The team that gets to start in overtime is:

1. The team with more touchdowns in regulation (e.g. if they’re tied 21-21 with one team having 3 TD’s and the other team having 7 FG’s, the team with the TD’s gets the ball to start in OT)

2. If the teams have the same number of touchdowns (which will be pretty common since the score is tied), give OT possession to the team that scored the first touchdown in regulation.

3. If neither team scored a touchdown in regulation, give OT possession to the first team to score points.

4. If neither team scored, it’s 0-0 after 4 quarters, then do a coin toss.

This way, you preserve the traditional short sudden death overtime, so the players don’t get beat up more, but you aren’t giving teams an advantage from a random coin toss.

You’re giving teams an advantage for doing what they’re trying to do all along: score touchdowns early and often.

Maybe it will even force teams to be a little bit more bold and go for touchdowns in situations when they are considering a long FG on 4th-and-2.