NFL to look at changing overtime rules for postseason

By D. Orlando Ledbetter

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The NFL competition committee will propose changes to the overtime rules for the postseason at the league's annual meeting next week in Orlando.

Under the proposal, a team could win on the first possession of overtime by scoring a touchdown, but if the team scores a field goal, the opposing team would receive the ball with a chance to tie with a field goal or win with a touchdown.

If the second team ties with a field goal, the game would revert to sudden death.

"In this case, we just try to make a statistical argument that the time has maybe come to innovate when it comes to overtime," said Falcons president Rich McKay, co-chair of the competition committee. "There is a reason statistically to do so."

Sudden-death overtime was introduced in 1974, and the committee contends that the system worked from then through 1993. During that time, the team that won the coin toss won 46.8 percent of the games and the team that lost the toss won 46.8 percent of the time, McKay said.

From 1994 -- when kickoffs were pushed back to the 30-yard line -- through 2009, the team that won the toss won the game 59.8 percent of the time. The team that lost the coin toss lost the game 38.5 percent of the time. All other games ended in a tie.

The committee attributes that in part to the improved accuracy of field-goal kickers.

The proposal appears to be in response to last season's NFC championship game, in which the New Orleans Saints defeated the Minnesota Vikings in overtime without the Vikings' offense having possession. The Vikings dominated the game, but untimely turnovers led to the Saints' victory.

McKay believes the proposal is solid.

"It emphasizes more skill and strategy, as opposed to the randomness of the coin flip," McKay said.