Proposed rule would make overtime 15 minutes again

Posted by Michael David Smith on March 11, 2020, 5:10 AM EDT
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For the last three seasons, overtime in the NFL regular season has lasted a maximum of 10 minutes. That could change this year.

The NFL owners will consider at the upcoming league meeting a rule change that would make overtime 15 minutes again.

The shorter overtime has led to some complaints that it simply doesn’t give the teams enough time: If the team that receives the overtime kickoff has a long drive to start the overtime but doesn’t score a touchdown to win the game, the team that kicked off has very little time left.

When the league shortened overtime it cited player safety as the reason, and it’s rare for the NFL to reverse a player safety rule. So it appears unlikely that the proposal will pass.

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9 responses to “Proposed rule would make overtime 15 minutes again”

  1. If you really want to focus on player safety, do away with overtime in the regular season all together. If two teams are tied at the end of regulation, it’s a tie game. End of story.

  2. NFL overtime is boring and filled with mundane plays designed to kill the clock. Adopt the college overtime format!

  3. 15 minutes of overtime and a 17th game? Doesn’t seem that rare anymore for the NFL to reverse their focus on player safety…

  4. Play a full quarter. The are well paid union workers and should be able to work overtime when required

  5. How about 10 mins of regular play for OT and then after, if the game is still tied, a field goal competition like a Hockey OT shootout. Start at 35, then the 40, then 45, then 50 and so on until someone makes and someone doesnt

  6. charger383 says:
    March 11, 2020 at 8:53 am
    Play a full quarter. The are well paid union workers and should be able to work overtime when required

    4 0 Rate This

    Usually, overtime is paid at a minimum of time and a half for union workers. I don’t think the teams want to pay players an extra 3/8ths of a game check for 15 minutes of overtime…

  7. Here’s a solution. Maybe the defense could, you know, not let the other team sustain a long drive so your own offense has more than 2 – 3 minutes to score.

    Sudden death was always fine to me and the more recent OT rules could go right back in the trash can as far as I’m concerned

  8. Cut out 5 min of game time in the sake of player safety but add a whole game to everyone’s schedule and throw in two more playoff teams while removing a 1st round by for #2 seed. Makes perfect sense in the dumb nfl world. What a cluster they have created

  9. I don’t care if they keep it 10 minutes or go back to 15 minutes. But just play the whole OT period!

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