According to Kevin Seifert of ESPN, the National Football League has changed its overtime rules for the playoffs. Under its new rules, the league is allowing each team one possession of the football during the postseason only. The overtime rules will stay status quo for the time being in the regular season.
The National Football League was heavily criticized by the public for their postseason rules following the AFC Divisional Playoff between the Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs. In a game that saw the Chiefs win 42-36, Patrick Mahomes threw an eight-yard touchdown pass to Travis Kelce on the Chiefs’s first possession of extra time.
The Chiefs/Bills contest was considered a classic, as 25 points were scored in the final two minutes of regulation. Under NFL rules last season, if a team scored a playoff touchdown on their first possession, the game was then over. Kansas City accomplished that feat in the Divisional Playoff, and moved on to the AFC Championship. Now if the two teams each score the same number of points after their first playoff possession, the winner will be the first team that breaks the tie.
One can criticize the NFL’s overtime rules, but the alterations made in 2011 significantly improved the sport. Prior to 2011, it was the first team that scored in overtime, which won the game. This put an incredible amount of emphasis on the coin toss. After 2011, the overtime rules became better, and rewarded a team for scoring a touchdown, instead of just a field goal, if they got the ball first.
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