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Goodell and Polian Helped Put OT Proposal Over the Top

Posted Mar 23, 2010 by Ira Kaufman

Updated Mar 23, 2010 at 05:29 PM

By IRA KAUFMAN
ORLANDO—Forget about sudden death—this was sudden life.

The modified overtime format proposed by the NFL Competition Committee for the postseason was supposed to requite a lot of arm-twisting among head coaches and owners, but the proposal passed Tuesday by an overwhelming 28-4 margin, with the only negative votes supplied by the Bills, Vikings, Ravens and Bengals.

Committee co-chairman Rich McKay answered all questions from the skeptics and traditionalists while Colts president Bill Polian and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell demonstrated support for a proposal ensuring at least one OT possession for each team—unless the receiving club scores an immediate touchdown.

“This is a rule we’ve talked about for about eight years,’’ said McKay, who noted that recent trends showed clubs that won the coin toss were winning OT games at a 60 percent clip. “We had the two-possession proposal, we had a proposal moving the kickoff back to the 35. In my mind, this is the fairest proposal. It most resembles our game and involves a lot more skill and strategy from a coaching perspective and less on the randomness of the coin toss—which was becoming too much of a factor in our game.’‘

The adopted proposal isn’t perfect, but it’s a solid start.

McKay would like to see the new OT format extended to regular-season games, but that may take a while. In the interim, playoff teams receiving the OT kickoff still have an opportunity to end the game with an opening possession that concludes with a touchdown.

If the opening drive finishes with a field goal, the team trailing by three points will have an opportunity to either tie the score and prolong OT in traditional sudden-death style or win the playoff matchup by scoring a touchdown.

Even if inclement weather is a factor, don’t expect any club that wins the OT coin toss to elect to kick off rather than receive.

“That’s not going to happen,’’ said Titans coach Jeff Fisher, also a co-chairman of the Competition Committee.

McKay said kickers were steadily becoming too accurate from long distance, leading to too much of an advantage for teams receiving the OT kickoff.

“This is still sudden death,’’ McKay said. “One play and the game is over at any time. But because of the accuracy and leg strength of kickers, you had defenses defending 30 yards instead of trying to defend 60 yards. That’s a huge difference.’‘