Ties in the NFL? KC Chiefs coach Andy Reid weighs in after Packers-Cowboys game
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Packers and Cowboys played to a historic 40-40 tie in “Sunday Night Football.”
- NFL's regular-season overtime time limit kept both teams to one possession.
- Andy Reid cited TV timing, player health as key factors in overtime structure.
Following Sunday’s Chiefs-Ravens matchup in the late-afternoon window, the Cowboys hosted the Packers at AT&T Stadium for “Sunday Night Football.”
It was a thriller — one that saw the Packers tie it at 37-all late in the fourth quarter to force overtime. In the 10-minute extra period, the Cowboys and Packers traded field goals before the time expired.
For the first time ever, an NFL game ended in a 40-40 tie, with the unprecedented finish leaving just about everyone unsatisfied.
Throughout his career, Chiefs head coach Andy Reid has served on the NFL Competition Committee’s Coaches Subcommittee, which feeds recommendations to the full committee. With ties suddenly under the microscope, Reid weighed in during his weekly Monday afternoon Zoom.
“Nobody wants a tie, I don’t think, but that’s what goes on,” Reid said. “You’re juggling a lot of different things when you do this. You’ve got TV and how that works — and the media is a big part of it — and then you’ve got time restrictions, so on and so forth, (that) these guys all have to look at that.
“That’s not my world, but I know it’s not just a matter of, ‘Hey, we can play forever.’ That’s not where we’re at right now.”
Ahead of 2025, the both-teams-possess rule only existed in the postseason. It now applies in the regular season, too. But in a 10-minute period, that can make finding a victor tricky.
Sunday night’s overtime period featured just two possessions that consumed all 10 minutes.
“You take the health of the player in there, too,” Reid said. “You start tagging on a bunch of overtimes, that’s a tough thing to do, so they save it for you for the playoffs. Until then, if you get a tie, you get a tie, and you move on from there. But there are a lot of things they have to consider.”
Reid’s only tie in his 27 years as a head coach came in 2008 (Eagles 13, Bengals 13). After the game, Donovan McNabb famously revealed he didn’t know games could end in a tie.
After Cowboys-Packers on Sunday night, everyone is well aware.
