WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- As a member of the influential Competition Committee, Mike Tomlin knew there were changes coming in the way the NFL handles overtime periods.
He just wasn't a fan of what was going to happen.
Tuesday at the NFL Meetings here at The Breakers Resort, the Competition Committee approved changes to the overtime period by a vote of 29-3 that will now allow both teams to possess the football in overtime in the postseason, regardless if the team that wins the opening coin toss of the period scores a touchdown on its first possession. Under previous overtime rules, if the team that won the opening coin toss scored a touchdown, the game was over.
That was something that happened in the most recent AFC playoffs in January as the Chiefs beat the Bills, 42-36, to advance to the AFC Championship. That led to immediate calls for the league to tweak its overtime rules once again.
The rule will not affect regular season games, which will still be played under the 2021 previous rules.
"It got a good bit of discussion," said Steelers president Art Rooney II. "Some wanted to keep the regular season and postseason overtime consistent. I think we got to the point where we realized it was impossible to do that way.
"I think that one game was stuck in everybody's mind to make the change."
Despite seeing his team lose a playoff game in the 2011 season against the Broncos in overtime when Tim Tebow threw a touchdown pass to Demaryius Thomas on the opening play of the extra period, Tomlin wasn't a fan of changing the rule.
"I'm a sudden death advocate. I'm a traditionalist," Tomlin said. "I don't fear sudden death and I never have, but obviously I lost that battle a decade ago. But my position remains unchanged.
"I just don't fear sudden death."
The new tweak in the rules, however, do keep things in a more traditional state. There had been proposals for more radical things, such as ending the game if the team possesses the ball first scores a touchdown and then also scores a two-point conversion try. In previous years, ideas such as giving both teams the ball at a certain spot on the field -- as they do in college football -- had also been kicked around.
Tomlin definitely wasn't in favor of making radical changes to the way the game is played.
"I just think 60 minutes everybody has had a fair opportunity to win the game," he said. "And so, you know when you're talking about changes as it pertains to competitive fairness, I speak to the first 60 minutes that we all had to win the game.
"I don't want to have to stand in front of my team at the most significant moment in the game and explain to them how and why it's different or to remind those guys of the rules. The more closely that we can remain to continual football, I'm going to be in alignment with that. When you start talking about rule changes in the way that the game is played structurally, based on that time period. That’s probably when I get quiet and move away from the discussion."
