No change in overtime; playoff expansion tabled

PHOENIX -- NFL owners changed nothing.\nThe league closed its annual spring meeting Wednesday by voting down a proposal to give both teams a shot at the ball in overtime. And it tabled a proposal to expand the playoffs from 12 teams to 14.\nThe plan to change the overtime rule got 17 votes, seven short of the 24 required for passage.\n"They made the decision because the current system presents a tremendous reward or risk. That's something that adds a lot of excitement to the game," said Indianapolis general manager Bill Polian, who helped convince the other teams by citing the Colts' 23-20 win overtime win over the Broncos in the Denver snow.\nThe expansion of the playoffs got more support than either commissioner Paul Tagliabue or competition committee chairman Rich McKay expected.\nBut it was tabled until the league's May meeting in Philadelphia because, Tagliabue said, the league had to study the ramifications for both competition and television coverage involved in adding two wild-card teams.\nSome teams also are concerned that only one team would have a bye under the proposed system. And both Tagliabue and McKay noted it was a change in an agreement to wait two years with the new eight-division alignment before tinkering with the playoffs.\n"We had no problems last year with the alignment," said McKay, Tampa Bay's general manager. "The teams that made the playoffs were the teams with the best records."\nThe change in overtime was proposed after a record 25 games went into an extra session last year. Ten of those were won by a team on its first possession and 58 percent were won by the team that won the coin toss at the start of the OT.\nOne of those was the game in Denver, which seemed to sway many teams.\nIn that contest, which was televised nationally, the Colts' Mike Vanderjagt tied the game with a 54-yard field goal in regulation. Indianapolis then won the coin toss in overtime and moved the ball far enough for Vanderjagt to try a 51-yarder into the wind, which he made.\nPolian said that if it wasn't sudden death, coach Tony Dungy certainly would have chosen to punt; he sent the punting team on the field until Vanderjagt convinced him to try the field goal.\n"That game made our season," Polian said. "It's probably the main reason we made the playoffs. If there had been two possessions, a defensive-minded coach like Tony certainly would have tried to pin them back. That would have been the right call. But the reward for kicking was much greater -- we won the game on the spot."\nIn another move, the league changed the rules involving onside kicks in the final five minutes of games.\nIn the past, if a ball did not go 10 yards, went out of bounds, or was touched illegally, the kicking team was penalized, but had a chance to kick again from five yards back.\nUnder the new rule, the receiving team will have the option of accepting the penalty and getting the ball immediately -- without the kicking team having a second chance to try an onside kick.\nThe new rule will only be in effect during the final five minutes of a game as a concession to coaches who feared teams would stop trying surprise onside kicks.