NFL Rules for Overtime Stats

Overtime in the National Football League occurs when two teams playing a game have a tie score at the end of the fourth quarter. The overtime period is typically called sudden death because the first team to score wins, but a 2010 rule change for playoff games means that won't always be the case. The overtime statistics are simply added to the four-quarter totals and become part of the game record; no special rules or provisions apply to the keeping of overtime stats.

  1. Sudden Death

    • The first official NFL overtime happened in the 1958 championship game, when the Baltimore Colts beat the New York Giants, 23-17. The NFL instituted overtime for regular-season games starting in 1974. To begin sudden death overtime, the referee tosses a coin at the center of the field. The visiting team's captain calls the toss, and the winner of the toss chooses whether his team will kick or receive the ball. In overtime, the coin toss winner almost always chooses to receive the ball. The loser gets to choose which goal to defend. Play continues as during regulation time, and in regular-season games the team that scores first--via touchdown, field goal or safety--wins, ending the game immediately without regard to how much time has expired.

    No Score During Overtime

    • If after 15 minutes of overtime neither team has scored, the game is declared a tie during the regular season. In the single-elimination playoffs, the game continues for as long as it takes a team to score because a winner must emerge. The longest overtime game in NFL history happened on Dec. 25, 1971, between the Miami Dolphins and the Kansas City Chiefs. The Dolphins won, 27-24, after 22 minutes and 40 seconds of overtime.

    Modified Sudden Death

    • On March 23, 2010, the owners of NFL teams voted 28-4 to change the sudden death rule for playoff games effective with the 2010 season. Under the new rule, the team with the first overtime possession wins if it scores a touchdown. If it scores a field goal, the other team gets a possession and a chance to tie the game or win it. NFL team owners who voted for the change quoted statistics that showed since 1994, teams that won the overtime coin toss and chose to receive the ball went on to win 59.8 percent of the time--34.4 percent of the time on the first possession. In the 2009 National Football Conference championship game, the New Orleans Saints won an overtime game against the Minnesota Vikings by kicking a field goal on the first OT possession. Although some owners were interested in including the regular season in the change, the league did not push it through in its 2010 spring meeting.