By the fourth quarter of a preseason game, most of the players on the field aren’t going to make the regular-season roster, and no one much cares who wins or loses. So when the score is tied at the end of the fourth quarter, why do teams bother to play overtime in the preseason?
Soon, they might not.
The NFL is considering a proposal to eliminate overtime in the preseason. The proposal was put forward by the Competition Committee, and owners will vote on it at the upcoming league meeting.
The reason for it is obvious: With the preseason growing increasingly irrelevant, why risk a player getting injured by extending the games?
But that doesn’t mean it will pass, as NFL owners have voted to keep overtime in the preseason on multiple occasions when it has come up at past league meetings. It will take at least 24 votes among the 32 teams to get rid of overtime in the preseason.