How is it that you hear of things like “sudden death” and “double-overtime”, and still NFL games can end in a tie? Does it depend if it is a regular season game or a post-season game? in post season, do they keep playing until the instant one team scores to break the tie? …Or, until the clock runs out after one team scores (assuming game does not tie-up once more before clock runs out)? How’s this all work? And, does the home team have any advantage in any overtime situation?
Any further questions?
In the NFL, if the game is tied at the end of regulation time (i.e., after 60 minutes), they begin an overtime period.
During the regular season, if the game is still tied after one 15-minute overtime period, the game then ends, as a tie. This doesn’t happen often, typically only once every season or two. (However, infamously, there have been players who haven’t realized that a game can end in a tie.)
During the postseason, a tie isn’t a feasible outcome (since only the winner of the game moves on to the next round of the playoffs)…so, they will keep playing until one team scores (one 15-minute overtime period at a time). Only six playoff games have made it to a second overtime period, and none have made it to a third.
Overtime in the NFL is “sudden death” – that is, once one team scores, the game ends. A few years ago, they tweaked this rule slightly, since gaining possession first in overtime had a fairly strong correlation with winning (since you only needed to kick a field goal to win). The tweaked rule states that, if the team which gets the ball first in overtime scores via a field goal with that first possession, the other team then gets a chance at possession (and could thus tie the game again with a field goal, or win it with a touchdown).
There’s one situation other than a touchdown where I think that a team can win in overtime immediately (or close to it). If the team that receives first gives up a safety during their first possession I think the game is over.
The current rules state that once both teams have had possession of the ball, if the game is no longer tied then the team with more points wins.
For an example of how this can happen, look at the start of my favorite game, Super Bowl 48. The first snap goes past the quarterback and lands behind him in the end zone. The offense recovers the ball but gets tackled in the end zone. Instant safety.
The ball is then kicked to the team that scored. Assuming something crazy doesn’t happen (muffing the kickoff return, the kicking team recovering an onside kick) then the team who scored now has possession of the ball. If that team then ends their possession voluntarily (say they choose to punt it away) then both team have had the ball once, the game is no longer tied, and it’s over.
I know teams have won in overtime with a safety (it’s rare but it happens) but each time it happened during sudden death. I don’t think this situation has happened prior to the sudden death period of overtime. I’m curious to see if my theory would play out if this situation ever happened.
I wish they would adopt a simpler system and just play out a full overtime quarter.
I’m pretty sure that a safety just wins the game immediately, even under the new rules.
I suspect that they don’t want to tire out players unnecessarily, and give an added risk of injury, which is the same reason why we have bye weeks during the regular season.
I think the intent of overtime is to avoid ties as often as they can, without dragging the game out longer than they have to. As mentioned before, the rules were modified in 2012 because it seemed like the team to receive the kickoff was almost always the winner which meant that most overtime games were effectively won with a coin flip, which isn’t a great way to decide an athletic contest. 
Before that it was sudden death because they just wanted the game to end without a tie as soon as possible.
If you really want it simplified, just state that a game tied at the end of the 4th quarter is a tie. That’s simple and quick but will lead to a lot more tied games.
That’s how college football games used to end, until they decided to institute that asinine shootout-style overtime system. Now there are occasional games that go into 6 or 7 “overtimes” and end with scores like 70-63.
I was thinking the same thing, but going by a literal interpretation of the current overtime rules it doesn’t seem like it would, because technically the second team hasn’t yet had a possession and no touchdown has been scored. But it probably should because everything after the safety would practically be a formality, kind of like when a team is kneeling down for victory. Theoretically you can fumble the snap and get a turnover for a score but that practically never happens.
But it would make sense to just end it then. From what I can tell this situation has yet to happen though.
Slight hijack: bye weeks do have the effect of giving teams a chance to get their players healthier, but a big part of why they were introduced (in the late 1980s) was to stretch the season out to 17 weeks from 16, thus adding a week of televised football (and the commensurate increase in money to the league).
The reason this won’t happen is it wreaks havoc with the NFL’s TV scheduling. They don’t like the 10am games running over the 1pm ones (or 1pm/4pm for you east coast heathens).
NM
Good info thanks.
It’s covered in the official NFL rules:
[Quote=Da Rules]
A.R. 16.19 SAFETY
Third-and-5 on [Team ]A 7 [yard line]. On the opening possession of overtime, [Player] A1 is tackled in his own end zone for a safety.
Ruling: Game over. Team B wins. Both teams have met the minimum requirements for possession.
[/quote]
Thanks, so my gut was right; the fact that the ball is kicked back to the other team after a safety is considered giving possession to the other side so they just end the game. Thanks for that! 
Just wanted to thank everyone for their posts. Although I did Google it, of course it regurgitates the rules back at me in a way that doesn’t really answer the question. I like how the SD offers a well-rounded view on the subject. I get the fans’ take on why things are the way they are, pros and cons.
I also seem to recall that if Team A kicks off to start the overtime period onside and recovers, the sudden death period officially starts, even though Team B hasn’t possessed the ball (but they had the opportunity to.)
Ah, yes, confirmed in the rules linked to upthread:
[QUOTE=NFL Rules]
A.R. 16.2 ONSIDE KICK
On the opening kickoff of overtime, Team A legally recovers the ball at the A41.
Ruling: A’s ball, first-and-10 on A41. A kickoff is considered an opportunity to possess for the receiving team. Team B is considered to have had an opportunity to possess the ball.
[/QUOTE]