March 23 (Bloomberg) -- The National Football League changed its overtime rules for postseason games to increase the chances of both teams playing offense. Owners voted 28-4 to require the first team with the ball to score a touchdown to win the game immediately. Currently, the first team to score any points wins.
If the first team playing offense kicks a field goal, the other team gets the ball. If the score is still tied after that team’s possession, play continues in the existing sudden-death format and the next points win the game.
Indianapolis Colts President Bill Polian said the new rule would help defenses.
“If they can hold the team that gets the ball first to a field goal, then they’ve got an opportunity to win the game,” he said in a news conference.
The rule change comes after the National Football Conference championship game was won by the New Orleans Saints in overtime without their opponent, the Minnesota Vikings, ever having the ball. The Saints received the kickoff and made a field goal to win.
The Vikings, Baltimore Ravens, Buffalo Bills and Cincinnati Bengals voted against the changes, NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said. The measure required at least 24 votes to pass.
The team that wins the coin toss determining the first offensive possession in overtime now wins the game almost 60 percent of the time, Rich McKay, chairman of the NFL’s competition committee said last week in a media conference call. That’s up from about 50 percent between 1974 and 1993.
“We felt like statistically it needed to be changed,” McKay said in the news conference.
