Commissioner Roger Goodell, in a press conference held in conjunction with the annual league meetings in Orlando, spoke out in support of the tweak in the overtime rules proposed by the Competition Committee.
The proposal would prevent the team that receives the kickoff in overtime during a playoff game from winning with only a field goal on the first drive.
He said it has the “potential to be a better system” than the long-time procedure used to resolve ties in postseason games, which permits sudden victory based on a first-drive field goal. Goodell also said that he “loves the idea” of the sudden-death component to the proposed system, which can be resolved on any given play via a touchdown by the team that receives the kickoff or a turnover returned for a touchdown by the team that kicked off.
So will it pass? At his pre-Super Bowl press conference, Goodell said regarding a new overtime system, “Don’t hold your breath.” With a proposal on the agenda for this week’s meetings, he said, “I’m not holding my breath yet.”
And for good reason. Even though the Competition Committee has endorsed the move, there’s a sense that the measure will not muster the required 24 votes.