Two Proposals to End NFL Overtime Ties
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- The author proposes a two-point conversion shootout for the NFL, mirroring college overtime rules, to break any game still tied after the current 10-minute overtime period.
- The author's second proposal, the 'field goal gamble,' has the coin toss winner select the field goal distance while the losing team decides who attempts the kick.
- Russell Wilson, now at CBS Sports, floated a similar field-goal tiebreaker in 2021 with a fixed 53-yard distance, saying NFL ties drive him crazy.
- The Week 4 Packers-Cowboys game ended 40-40 last season—the NFL's only tie—drawing 26.9 million viewers on NBC's Sunday Night Football.
- The NFL shortened regular-season overtime from 15 minutes to 10 minutes in 2017, citing the physical toll of a fifth quarter on players.
- Under the field goal gamble as applied to that Packers-Cowboys tie, the author says Brandon Aubrey (Cowboys) would attempt a 61-yard kick the Packers chose, since Packers kicker Brandon McManus is 1-of-10 in his career from 60-plus yards.
Why it matters: Regular-season NFL overtime ends after 10 minutes regardless of score, producing anticlimactic ties like last season's 40-40 Packers-Cowboys draw that drew 26.9 million viewers. Adopting either proposal would force every regular-season game to have a winner, with the two-point shootout already proven in college football and the field goal gamble adding a strategic choice absent from Wilson's original 2021 fixed-distance version.
