NFL Overtime: From the Greatest Game Ever to Today

Published on September 13th, 2025 11:51 am EST
Written By: Dave Manuel


The NFL was a different league before overtime. Regular season games could and often did end in ties. No sudden death, no extra period, just the scoreboard frozen and both teams heading home with unfinished business.

That all changed in 1974. The league introduced a sudden-death overtime format, designed to bring finality to games and give fans a clear winner. The rule only applied to regular season contests. A coin toss decided possession, and the first team to score won.

Before that, ties weren't rare. From 1920 through 1973, more than 250 regular season games ended deadlocked. Coaches hated them, players hated them, and fans hated them. But without overtime, there was no other option. In the postseason, however, ties weren't allowed. If a playoff game was still even after four quarters, teams would just keep playing until someone scored. The 1958 NFL Championship, known as "The Greatest Game Ever Played," was the most famous example. The Colts beat the Giants 23-17 in the first sudden-death overtime contest in league history.

The 1974 rule stood largely unchanged until 2010. Then came controversy in the playoffs. Games were being decided on field goals before the opposing team ever touched the ball. The league responded by adjusting the format. Starting with the 2010 postseason, a team could only win immediately on its first possession with a touchdown. A field goal gave the other team the ball with a chance to respond.

By 2012, the modified sudden-death rule extended into the regular season as well. That change reduced the impact of the coin toss and gave fans a more balanced finish. Yet ties never fully disappeared. Since the introduction of overtime in 1974, the NFL has averaged about one tie every other season, thanks to the 10-minute overtime limit adopted in 2017 to shorten games.

Overtime has become one of the league's most debated rules. Purists want the old sudden-death drama. Others want college-style alternating possessions. The league continues to tweak. After a wild 2021 postseason game between the Chiefs and Bills, in which Josh Allen never saw the ball in overtime, owners approved a playoff-only change giving both teams at least one possession no matter what.

The NFL's approach to overtime has always been a balancing act between fairness and excitement. Fans may never agree on the perfect system, but one thing is certain: the days of simply ending a game with a handshake and a tie are long gone.