Overtime rule could make its way to regular season
Published: March 23rd, 2010 | Tags: 2010 NFL Annual Meeting, Rich McKay, Zygi Wilf
As the news day draws to a close in the NFL newsroom in Los Angeles, there’s certainly a lot of information to chew on regarding the new overtime playoff rule passed by league owners earlier Tuesday.
While owners voted overwhelmingly (28-4) in favor of the modification, one of the reported dissenters — Vikings owner Zygi Wilf — challenged the uniformity of the rule, arguing it should be applied to both the regular season and playoffs.
“First, from the consistency standpoint, I think to have one rule for overtime in the regular season and have a different set of rules for the postseason is totally inconsistent,” Wilf told fellow owners. “There are a lot of unintended consequences by using different strategies for practicing during the season and postseason. From that standpoint, it’s inconsistent.”
As NFL Network’s Steve Wyche notes in his latest column, this rule extending to the regular season at some point, however, is a distinct possibility.
Falcons president Rich McKay, co-chairman of the competition committee, said he doesn’t expect to see the rule in the 2010 regular season. But Tuesday’s vote feels like a prelude of sorts. After speaking with several owners, NFL Network insider Jason La Canfora suggested the rule could make its way to the agenda when owners meet again in Dallas in May. In that scenario, if the owners were to get 24 votes in favor, we would see the overtime rule in the regular season in 2010.