After putting the annual offseason gathering on pause the last couple of years because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the NFL owners meetings will return to South Florida this week.
After conducting the meeting virtually in 2020 and 2021, owners and representatives from the 32 NFL teams will meet at The Breakers in Palm Beach to discuss the league’s past, present and future.
The most pressing topic this year figures to be potential changes to the NFL’s overtime format.
As the rule currently exists, the team that possesses the ball first in overtime can win the game in sudden death if it scores a touchdown on the opening drive. After that, any score that puts a team ahead wins the game.
There are two rule proposals up for consideration this season regarding the overtime format.
Indianapolis and Philadelphia combined to propose an amendment that would guarantee both teams an opportunity to touch the ball in overtime. If one team has more points after both teams have possessed the ball, that team wins the game.
A second proposal, from Tennessee, would allow both teams to touch the ball in overtime unless the team with the first possession scores a touchdown and a successful two-point try.
Either of these rule changes would require 24 (of 32) votes to pass and change the rule.
There has been a growing push to change the overtime format in recent seasons to not favor the team that wins an arbitrary coin toss at the start of the extra period. A dramatic finish from this past postseason might vault it over the finish line.
The Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs played an epic contest in the divisional round of the 2021 playoffs.
That game featured three lead changes in the fourth quarter as quarterbacks Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes traded haymakers. Trailing by three and starting from his own 25-yard line with 13 seconds remaining, Mahomes connected on a pair of deep passes that allowed Kansas City to tie the game with a 49-yard field goal as time expired.
The Chiefs won the coin toss to start overtime and went on a surgical eight-play, 75-yard march that ended with a Mahomes touchdown pass to Travis Kelce. Buffalo never touched the ball in overtime.
It was one of a series of recent high-profile games to end this way. Kansas City lost in a similar fashion to the New England Patriots in the 2018 AFC championship game, and it was not that long ago the New Orleans Saints were also bitten by the current NFL overtime format.
They hosted the Minnesota Vikings in the wild-card round of the 2019 playoffs, lost the coin flip at the start of the extra period, then lost in sudden death when Vikings tight end Kyle Rudolph caught a touchdown pass on third and goal, ending the game before the Saints could possess the ball in overtime.
The NFL last made drastic changes to the overtime format in 2010, changing from a pure sudden-death format to requiring a touchdown on the opening possession to end the game. Since then, the teams that won the coin toss have gone on to win 10 of the 12 playoff games that went to overtime.
The Saints and the Chiefs were the only teams in that span to lose overtime playoff games in which they possessed the ball first — New Orleans to the Los Angeles Rams in the 2018 NFC championship game, and Kansas City to the Cincinnati Bengals in this past season’s AFC championship.
The NFL also could vote on a rule change regarding player safety on punts — plays that have led to a high number of concussions — though the specifics regarding a potential rule change are not yet clear.
The big topic at NFL owners meetings this week: Is it time to change the overtime format? - NOLA.com
Read More
No comments:
Post a Comment