It comes after the dramatic ending to the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs and the Buffalo Payments sport within the playoffs final season, with the Chiefs profitable 42-36 after profitable the coin toss and scoring a landing with the primary possession, due to this fact ending the sport with the Payments by no means getting a possibility to answer.
The ending of the sport within the AFC Divisional Spherical shone a lightweight on the rule, with some followers calling it the “worst rule in sports activities.”

And commissioner Roger Goodell mentioned the NFL “at all times take heed to the followers — that is an vital factor.”

“We’re at all times seeking to enhance and I believe what actually drove the choice was the database, in the end, and looking out on the information and what’s occurred,” Goodell mentioned after the rule change on Tuesday.

“The place we noticed that almost all having an affect, I believe, was 12 video games within the postseason which have been in extra time, seven of which had been gained on the primary possession. Once you see that, that is the kind of factor that I believe our coaches and everybody checked out — this is a matter within the postseason we must always cope with.”

Twenty-nine of the 32 groups within the league voted in favor of the rule change, in line with NFL Community reporter Ian Rapoport.

The normal sudden-death guidelines will nonetheless apply for all common season video games.

The NFL's overtime rule explained and why fans want to see it changed

Beforehand, the crew that obtained the opening kickoff in extra time would win the sport in the event that they scored a landing on their first possession. With the permitted rule change on Tuesday, each groups are assured a possibility to own the ball at the least as soon as throughout the additional interval, until the crew kicking off forces a security on the receiving crew’s preliminary possession.

Based on the NFL Analysis, since 2010, there have been 12 extra time playoff video games, with the crew that gained the coin toss profitable in 10 of these 12 conferences. Seven of these 10 wins got here on a sudden-death opening-drive landing.

The NFL’s extra time guidelines now are rather more much like school soccer’s, which many argued had been fairer than the NFL’s earlier guidelines.

In school soccer, every crew — no matter who wins the extra time coin toss — will get an opportunity to go on offense from the opposite’s 25 yard-line within the first extra time.

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CNN’s Harry Enten discovered that whereas, beforehand within the NFL, groups hoped to win the coin toss and win the sport on the first time of asking, within the collegiate sport, the crew that wins the toss normally decides to go on protection first as a result of they’ll know if the opposite crew scored a landing, a discipline objective or failed to attain. Primarily based on that, the crew that goes second can select to be roughly aggressive after they get on offense.
Chiefs and Bills players meet at midfield for the coin toss to determine who will get the ball to start the overtime period in their NFL Divisional Playoff game.

Based on information from Oklahoma State’s Rick Wilson, a professor on the Spears College of Enterprise, and thru analysis of field scores from Sports activities Reference, there have been almost 300 extra time video games involving Division I Soccer Bowl Subdivision groups from 2013-2021.

The crew that obtained the ball second gained 49.7% of the time since 2013, or proper about 50% of the time.

Now, it appears, very like school soccer, the NFL’s extra time video games shall be extra truthful affairs.