When it comes to American sports, ties are rare. In the NBA, teams play as many overtime periods as needed until there’s a winner. Baseball goes into extra innings until one team takes the lead. Even in the NHL, where teams earn a point for reaching overtime, there is still always a winner after overtime and/or a shootout. But the NFL is different.
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The NFL is the only one of the big four sports leagues in America that has games end in a draw. There is overtime, but if the teams are tied at the end, there’s no extra-extra period. It’s simply a tie. Since the introduction of overtime in 1974, there have been just 29 ties in the NFL. Since 2017, when the overtime period was reduced from 15 to 10 minutes, there have been seven ties.
In 2024, the league updated its playoff overtime rules. According to NBC, if a game is tied at the end of regulation, each team gets two bonus timeouts. Here is the entire language:
“If an NFL game ends with a tie score at the end of regulation, each team receives two bonus timeouts, and the visiting team captain calls the coin toss to determine who gets the ball and who defends which goal. Then the teams head to a 10-minute modified sudden-death overtime system, which will hopefully determine an outright winner (although that doesn’t always happen, at least not in the regular season). And sorry, but there’s no coach’s challenges, as all instant replay reviews are initiated by the officials.”
This year, they have essentially expanded that same set of rules to apply to the regular season as well. That means that for the 2025 NFL season, both teams will get a chance to possess the ball in overtime no matter what. The period will be reduced from 15 minutes in the regular season to 10 minutes, as it is in the playoffs.
An epic playoff game inspired the overtime rules changes
The NFL’s rules surrounding overtime have been a hot topic of debate for some time. But never more so than in the last few years. The impetus for the changes came in the 2021 playoffs, when the Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills played possibly the greatest game in NFL playoff history.
The Bills scored two touchdowns in the final two minutes, but were thwarted by the Kansas City Chiefs, who tied it up 36-36 with 10 points of their own. This was clearly a battle that would be won by whichever team had the ball last. That meant that whoever won the overtime coin toss would likely win the game. And that’s exactly what happened.
2021 AFC Divisional: Bills @ Chiefs pic.twitter.com/eNFU1fMm8u https://t.co/5mNAmvTr3O
— Nico (@elitetakes_) May 27, 2023
After leading two touchdown drives in the final two minutes to force overtime, Bills QB Josh Allen was not even afforded the opportunity to possess the ball in the extra period. Instead, Patrick Mahomes and company won the toss and drove down for the game-winning touchdown. After that, people around the league knew that a change was needed.
Shortly thereafter, the above changes to the overtime rules for playoff games were made. It’s this set of rules that is now being applied to the entire NFL season, including the regular season. That means that from Week 1 to the Super Bowl, if your team makes it to overtime, your offense will get a chance to keep you in the game.
And that seems fair enough.
