The outcry about the equity of the NFL’s overtime format renewed after last week’s epic AFC divisional game in Kansas City ended without the Bills touching the ball after regulation time expired, and there is a strong expectation within the league competition committee that multiple teams will make proposals on altering the process.
Traditionally, overtime proposals are the norm in one fashion or another, and with ample dialogue ongoing among fans and within the media about he merits of the current process, the league office fully expects several clubs to submit suggestions for improving the process. The Baltimore Ravens are very likely to resubmit their proposal from a year ago that, league sources said, was gaining serious traction and momentum until the point in the spring where Patriots influential coach Bill Belichick withdrew his support.
This proposal, dubbed “spot and choose,” would allow for one team to choose the yard line where the overtime drive would start, and the other would choose whether to play offense or defense. In this scenario, overtime would remain 10 minutes and the same rules would apply as to a touchdown ending the game and a field goal giving the team on defense a chance to answer.
“The Ravens’ proposal was very impressive and was building up some steam,” said one source involved in the process. “It was a 30-page PowerPoint that was very impressive, but a few weeks before the vote they lost Belichick and that was it.”
Within the league office there is ample support for the current overtime format. While seven of 11 playoff overtime games have been decided on the opening possession, the league would contend that is too small a sample size to draw sweeping conclusions from, while in the regular season just 76 of 152 teams that won the OT coin flip won the game (50%).
Several competition committee sources said they fully anticipate multiple overtime proposals to be submitted, and that group is also anticipating proposals to alter the current replay system. To this point, the owners have not been in favor of changing the current OT format, but that will surely be debated at league meetings in the spring.
