NDIANAPOLIS (AP)—An NFL spokesman said Saturday the league could change its overtime format for playoff games at a meeting next month.

Under the new format, both teams would get the ball at least once unless the first team to get the ball scores a touchdown, Greg Aiello said. If the first team to get the ball makes a field goal and the other team ties the game, action would continue until a team scores again.

Under the current rules, the first team to score wins.

“There have been various concepts that have been discussed in recent years, but this one has never been proposed,” Aiello said.

The competition committee will discuss the new concept with teams and players at league meetings March 21-24 in Orlando, Fla., when it could come to a vote. At least two thirds of the teams would need to agree to the changes for new rules to be adopted.

The debate about the rules gained steam after the NFC championship game, when New Orleans beat Minnesota 31-28 in overtime and Brett Favre’s(notes) Vikings never got the ball in the extra period. Under the proposed rule, Minnesota would have gotten another possession because the Vikings didn’t allow a touchdown.

Footwedge wrote: Just my two cents on a rule change for OT. I don't like what the NFL is proposing. Just don't. I would eliminate the coin toss, and I would designate a certain team to have the option of

A. Playing offense starting on your own 10 yard line (No kickoff) or
B. Playing defense and give the opponent the ball at their 10 yard line.

There would be no coin toss at all. Either the team that tied the game late, or the team that relinquished the tying score, would be officially delegated the responsibility of taking the ball at their own 10 yard line or not.

Thunder70 wrote: First team to score 6 wins...it's pretty simple...

Al Bundy wrote: Just play for a fixed amount of time (maybe 10 minutes). If one team can hold the ball for 10 minutes and kick a FG at the end of the drive, they deserve to win. Most likely each would have the ball at least once (in most cases twice). I also wouldn't mind seeing them doing away with OT in the regular season. It would be very interesting to see if a team is down by 7 and scores late which teams play for the tie and which teams play to win.

sportswizuhrd wrote:

Footwedge wrote: Just my two cents on a rule change for OT. I don't like what the NFL is proposing. Just don't. I would eliminate the coin toss, and I would designate a certain team to have the option of

A. Playing offense starting on your own 10 yard line (No kickoff) or
B. Playing defense and give the opponent the ball at their 10 yard line.

There would be no coin toss at all. Either the team that tied the game late, or the team that relinquished the tying score, would be officially delegated the responsibility of taking the ball at their own 10 yard line or not.

You would have to do this by coin toss. You cant designate a team to get the ball. That would reek of showing favorites. Team A is down 24-10 and comes back to tie the game but in OT Team B gets the ball first just because. Why? Same thing with Team A getting the ball first. Are they rewarded for coming back? Why isnt Team B rewarded for building a lead?

bases_loaded wrote: Why not just play another 15 minutes

Glory Days wrote: its actually a misconception that the team who gets the ball first wins most of the time. the numbers are actually close to 50/50. the biggest influence on who wins OT in the past few years has not been the stronger legs of the kickers when they kick a FG, but the kick off start being pushed back giving the return team better field position.