Football NFL won't change the overtime rules

Sam Hall · 03-18-2009, 01:50 PM

By John Clayton
ESPN.com
Archive

After further review, the NFL overtime rules won't change.

NFL Competition Committee co-chairman Rich McKay, speaking on a national conference call, said there will be no adjustment to the current overtime rules. The committee met for 10 days in Naples, Fla., and, after consulting players and conducting a league-wide survey from the 32 clubs, there wasn't enough support to make any proposal to change the current overtime rules, which were created to minimize the chance of ties.

There has been a recent push by fans for each team to have a possession in overtime. Players expressed concerns about safety issues if the current rules are changed. McKay said there has been a growing concern about the increasing number of games decided on the first possession after the overtime coin toss. In 2008, the team that won the coin toss had a 43.4 success rate in winning the game on the series following the coin toss. Overall, the team that won the coin toss had a 63 percent winning percentage regardless of the number of overtime possessions.

In other competitive items that will be discussed at next week's owners meeting in Dana Point, Calif., the committee recommended a reseeding proposal for the draft order in future years. Under the proposal, the 20 teams that didn't make the playoffs would be seeded based on their record as it is currently formatted. The change would involve teams making the playoffs. Those playoffs teams would be seeded in slots 21 through 32 and but they would drop in the positions based on how long they last in the playoffs.

The Jacksonville Jaguars have proposed a reseeding change in the playoffs that would reward non-division winners with better records a higher playoff seed than division winners with worse records.

In 2008, the Kansas City Chiefs proposed a rule change to limit the amount of hair coming out a helmet, but the Chiefs didn't resubmit that proposal this year, and it will not be discussed at the owners meeting.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3993657

03-18-2009, 01:50 PM	Topic Starter
Sam Hall UNSTOPPABLE Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: KC area Casino cash: $9895185	NFL won't change the overtime rules By John Clayton ESPN.com Archive After further review, the NFL overtime rules won't change. NFL Competition Committee co-chairman Rich McKay, speaking on a national conference call, said there will be no adjustment to the current overtime rules. The committee met for 10 days in Naples, Fla., and, after consulting players and conducting a league-wide survey from the 32 clubs, there wasn't enough support to make any proposal to change the current overtime rules, which were created to minimize the chance of ties. There has been a recent push by fans for each team to have a possession in overtime. Players expressed concerns about safety issues if the current rules are changed. McKay said there has been a growing concern about the increasing number of games decided on the first possession after the overtime coin toss. In 2008, the team that won the coin toss had a 43.4 success rate in winning the game on the series following the coin toss. Overall, the team that won the coin toss had a 63 percent winning percentage regardless of the number of overtime possessions. In other competitive items that will be discussed at next week's owners meeting in Dana Point, Calif., the committee recommended a reseeding proposal for the draft order in future years. Under the proposal, the 20 teams that didn't make the playoffs would be seeded based on their record as it is currently formatted. The change would involve teams making the playoffs. Those playoffs teams would be seeded in slots 21 through 32 and but they would drop in the positions based on how long they last in the playoffs. The Jacksonville Jaguars have proposed a reseeding change in the playoffs that would reward non-division winners with better records a higher playoff seed than division winners with worse records. In 2008, the Kansas City Chiefs proposed a rule change to limit the amount of hair coming out a helmet, but the Chiefs didn't resubmit that proposal this year, and it will not be discussed at the owners meeting. http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3993657
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