{"id":169867,"date":"2026-02-09T02:14:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T02:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/169867\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T02:14:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T02:14:08","slug":"super-bowl-2026-heres-how-the-nfls-overtime-rules-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/169867\/","title":{"rendered":"Super Bowl 2026: Here’s how the NFL’s overtime rules work"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The final quarter of the AFC divisional round playoff game<\/a> between the Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs on Jan. 23, 2022, could not have been more exciting. <\/p>\n

Three lead changes.<\/p>\n

Five scoring drives.<\/p>\n

A 36-36 tie at the end of regulation.<\/p>\n

The overtime period, however, could not have been more disappointing.<\/p>\n

One coin toss.<\/p>\n

One touchdown drive.<\/p>\n

Game over.<\/p>\n

One of the most exciting playoff games in recent memory \u2014 a quarterback duel between Buffalo\u2019s Josh Allen<\/a> and Kansas City\u2019s Patrick Mahomes<\/a> \u2014 ended abruptly in a 42-36 Chiefs win when Mahomes connected with Travis Kelce<\/a> on an eight-yard touchdown pass. <\/p>\n

Unlike the thrilling fourth quarter, Allen didn\u2019t get a chance to respond because of the overtime rule<\/a> the NFL had in place at the time. <\/p>\n

Because of an adjustment to the rules, however, such a scenario will not take place when the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots play in Super Bowl LX at Levi\u2019s Stadium in Santa Clara.<\/p>\n

The previous system was basically a modified sudden death system that gave each team at least one chance to score \u2014 with one big exception. <\/p>\n

If the team that first possessed the ball in overtime scored a touchdown on that drive, that team won. The game was over, with the other offense never getting a chance to take the field in overtime. <\/p>\n

If the first team kicked a field goal, the other team got a possession to either win the game with a touchdown or tie it with a field goal. In the latter case, the game continued until someone scored.<\/p>\n

Months after the 2022 Chiefs-Bills game, that rule was changed for the playoffs<\/a>. (and went into effect for the regular season in 2025). Now it\u2019s basically a modified modified sudden-death system that gives both teams a chance to score.<\/p>\n

If the first team scores a touchdown, the other team gets a possession to tie (and, therefore, extend) the game with a touchdown of its own. Everything else remains the same from the previous format.<\/p>\n

A safety in overtime also ends the game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The final quarter of the AFC divisional round playoff game between the Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":169868,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[5167,6426,320,2908,6308,81491,423,14882,6433,48,52,51,47,50,49,81490,752,12391,18574,427,65630],"class_list":["post-169867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-associated-press","tag-buffalo-bills","tag-chance","tag-fans","tag-field","tag-first-possession","tag-game","tag-josh-allen","tag-kansas-city-chiefs","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-new-overtime-rule","tag-nfl","tag-overtime","tag-playoffs","tag-team","tag-touchdown-catch"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}