NFL overtime rules 2024: Explaining how the OT format works in football for regular season, playoffs

One week into the 2024 NFL season and fans have already felt the excitement of an overtime game.

The Lions needed an extra period to defeat the Rams in a Week 1 "Sunday Night Football" showdown. Detroit scored a touchdown to put the game away on the opening drive without allowing Los Angeles to touch the ball.

If that same scenario played out in the playoffs, the Rams still would have gotten one drive to try and score a touchdown to tie or win the game. However, since it occurred in overtime in the regular season, a touchdown ended things for the Lions.

Confused about how the NFL's overtime rules work for the regular season and playoffs? The Sporting News breaks it all down for you below.

NFL overtime rules 2024

NFL overtime rules for regular season

• At the end of regulation, the referee will toss a coin to determine which team will possess the ball first in overtime. The visiting team captain will call the toss.
• No more than one 10-minute period will follow a three-minute intermission. Each team must possess, or have the opportunity to possess, the ball. The exception: if the team that gets the ball first scores a touchdown on the opening possession.
• Sudden death play — where the game ends on any score (safety, field goal or touchdown) — continues until a winner is determined.
• Each team gets two timeouts.
• The point after try is not attempted if the game ends on a touchdown.
• If the score is still tied at the end of the overtime period, the result of the game will be recorded as a tie.
• There are no instant replay coach’s challenges; all reviews will be initiated by the replay official.

NFL overtime rules for playoff games

The NFL implemented new overtime rules for playoff games in the 2023 postseason.

• If the score is still tied at the end of an overtime period — or if the second team’s initial possession has not ended — the teams will play another overtime period. Play will continue regardless of how many overtime periods are needed for a winner to be determined.
• There will be a two-minute intermission between each overtime period. There will not be a halftime intermission after the second period.
• The captain who lost the first overtime coin toss will either choose to possess the ball or select which goal his team will defend, unless the team that won the coin toss deferred that choice.
• Each team will have an opportunity to possess the ball in overtime.
• Each team gets three timeouts during a half.
• The same timing rules that apply at the end of the second and fourth regulation periods also apply at the end of a second or fourth overtime period.
• If there is still no winner at the end of a fourth overtime period, there will be another coin toss, and play will continue until a winner is declared.

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History of NFL overtime rules

The first overtime game in NFL history occurred on Aug. 28, 1955. The Rams and Giants squared off using the sudden-death rules, which had been invented by game promoter Harry Glickman, to determine the game. The Rams won it, and the overtime format was adopted and eventually used during the 1958 NFL championship.

The NFL moved forward with that model before implementing sudden-death overtime for regular-season games 16 years later. In the original format, the first team to score any points at all won the game. That included kicking a game-winning field goal.

That sudden-death format continued to be the NFL's preferred overtime choice for 35 years.

In 2010, the league amended the rule for playoff games. Field goals no longer counted as sudden-death game-enders for the team that received the ball first. Only a first-possession touchdown by the receiving team would end overtime without both teams getting a possession.

Two years after that change was implemented for the postseason, it was expanded to preseason and regular season games.

In 2017, the length of the overtime period was changed from 15 minutes to 10 minutes.

In 2021, the NFL officially eliminated overtime from preseason games. Both of these changes were made in the name of player safety, as it limited the number of snaps played in a contest.

Finally, the most recent NFL overtime change in 2022 ensures that each team will be able to possess the ball in overtime of a playoff game.

Sudden death only kicks in after the first team has had its possession, regardless of whether it scores a touchdown.