NFL will give overtime rules an ‘extensive going over,’ Cowboys’ Stephen Jones says
The NFL is going to evaluate its overtime rules this offseason, Dallas Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones said.
The overtime rules have come under scrutiny following the AFC Championship game. The New England Patriots and Kansas City Chiefs went to overtime tied at 31-31, the Patriots won the toss and Tom Brady promptly led his team on a game-winning touchdown drive.
Chiefs star quarterback and the league’s likely MVP Patrick Mahomes didn’t touch the ball.
“They’ll be looked at again this year after what we saw here,” Jones said from the Senior Bowl on Tuesday.
“We’ll give this, like we do everything, a very extensive going over. I know you all know this, but the competition probably meets more than any committee in the NFL in terms of work that goes into looking at the rules.”
The NFL made its most drastic change to overtime before the 2012 season when it implemented that each team would have a chance to possess the ball unless the team that possesses it first scores a touchdown on the initial drive.
The NFL had done it that way in the 2011 postseason, and decided to keep it in tact going forward. Since that change, eight postseason games have gone into overtime and five have been decided with a touchdown on the opening drive.
With how offensive-driven the league has become, though, it may be time to explore possibilities that allows each team to have the ball instead of potentially deciding the game on a coin flip.
The NFC Championship game had its own drama, too, with a missed pass interference call. That served as a difference-making non-call to send the Rams to the Super Bowl instead of the Saints.
But Jones didn’t sound overly enthusiastic about allowing penalties to be reviewed.
“Certainly you don’t want to officiate from replay,” Jones said. “I don’t think, at the end of the day, it’s good for the game. We [the competition committee] have got a lot of work to do here in the offseason.”
The Cowboys have been on the wrong side of officiating calls in the past. Two of the more notable are Dez Bryant’s controversial non-catch in the 2014 playoffs, and a no-call pass interference penalty by then-49ers cornerback Deion Sanders against Cowboys WR Michael Irvin in the 1994 NFC Championship.
“That’s part of the drama, fortunately or unfortunately, part of the drama of games,” Jones said. “That goes back for forever. We’ve got 22 guys on our field versus other sports, a lot of space, a lot of contact. It’s certainly a challenge for our officials. It’s a challenge for us to continue to get the best possible situation out there for these officials to do their jobs.
“But I have a tremendous amount of respect for our officials. I think they work their tail off. I think they do the very best possible job they can possibly do. They want to get it right as much as the next person, and we have to continue to put them in the best possible situations.”
This story was originally published January 22, 2019 at 5:17 PM.