NFL considers OT reduction
NEW YORK — NFL owners will consider proposals next week to cut regular-season overtime from 15 minutes to 10, to eliminate players leaping over the line on kick plays and to expand coaches’ challenges and what can be reviewed by officials.
In what promises to be a busy annual meeting next week in Phoenix that will include discussing the Raiders’ potential relocation from Oakland to Las Vegas, the 32 owners also will vote on changing the mechanics on replay reviews and other items intended to reduce downtime during games.
The Eagles proposed four rules changes, including abolishing the leaping techniques that league football operations director Troy Vincent said Thursday “don’t belong in the game.”
Seattle and Buffalo co-authored a proposal allowing a coach to challenge any officiating decision, whether a foul is called or not.
“That is a significant change to our current replay rule, and it is something that will be on the floor and will be debated next week,” NFL officiating chief Dean Blandino said.
Another major change would be the reduction of overtime during the regular season. (The extra period in the playoffs would remain at 15 minutes.) The powerful competition committee, of which Vincent and Blandino are members, believed it’s a player safety issue, noting that the number of total plays in overtime games — especially those that go deep into the extra period — are excessive, especially if a team has a quick turnaround on the schedule.
“We don’t know where a team is going to be playing the next week. It could be four days later,” said committee chairman Rich McKay, president of the Atlanta Falcons. “We felt we should put an end to it. We don’t think it will lead to more ties. Could it? It could, but we are not concerned with that.”
As for changing the format of overtime to ensure both teams always get a possession — a popular topic after how the Super Bowl ended, with New England beating the Falcons in OT — Blandino said the league wants to keep the element of sudden death in the extra period.