Owners do not vote on overtime; still sudden death in reg.season

[Kentucky Jet]

Owners don't vote on overtime; still sudden death in regular season

Posted by Michael David Smith on May 25, 2010 6:35 PM ET

NFL owners decided not to take a vote on modifying overtime at today's league meeting, meaning that the sudden-death overtime format will remain in place for the 2010 regular season.

In March league owners decided to modify the sudden death rule for the playoffs following the 2010 season, requiring teams to score a touchdown -- not just a field goal -- to win on the first possession of overtime. There was talk at the time that the league would vote in May to implement the new rule for the regular season as well, but that turned out not to be the case.

Some owners didn't like the idea of playing the playoffs under a different set of overtime rules than the regular season, but ultimately the owners -- perhaps concerned about objections from the players -- decided not to implement the same changes for the regular season that they have already implemented for the postseason.

The league may consider revamping overtime next year for the 2011 regular season, but right now, overtime reform for the regular season isn't happening.