Indianapolis Colts Propose NFL OT Rule Change

The Indianapolis Colts have offered a proposal to guarantee each team possession in overtime in NFL games which would apply to both regular-season as well as playoff games.

NFL Competition Committee Chair Rich McKay said that potential overtime changes will absolutely be discussed when the committee meets this week.

It’s unclear whether there is enough of a league-wide consensus to alter the league’s current OT format.

Though the NFL’s overtime rules were a sticking point during the 2021 playoffs, as the Chiefs’ overtime win against the Bills in the AFC divisional round featured a Buffalo team whose offense never had an opportunity in the extra frame.

The league added sudden-death OT to the postseason in 1946, and its first OT period came during the 1958 NFL Championship Game, with Johnny Unitas’ Colts grabbing a 23-17 win over the Giants.

It wasn’t until 1974 that the league instituted sudden-death overtime for regular-season games.

Then, in 2011, the NFL made a change to its playoff OT games that was implemented into the regular season in 2012: It gives the team that starts overtime on defense a chance to possess the ball as long as they don’t allow a touchdown on the game’s opening drive. If both teams kick a field goal on their initial drives, overtime becomes sudden death and any further score ends it all.

The Chiefs were involved in both postseason OT games this past year, though their second time wouldn’t have been affected by the rule change. A week after the aforementioned Bills victory, an interception by Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes on the first drive of the AFC Championship Game led to Evan McPherson’s game-winning field goal, sending the Bengals to Super Bowl LVI.