A History of Tie Games and Overtime in Football

Given the recent controversy over the NFL's overtime rules, it is worth reviewing the history of tie games in football and the many attempts to eliminate them. Although no one other than Ara Parseghian and Notre Dame likes tie games, they were a regular and accepted part of football for much of the game's history, partly because games between evenly-matched teams were often low-scoring affairs. Take, for instance, the biggest games of the year in early football -the season-ending matches between Princeton and Yale- when six of ten games played between 1877 and 1886 ended as scoreless ties. It seemed at the time that if the two teams had not determined a winner or even scored after their ninety- or seventy-minute games, then it was unlikely that a tie-breaking overtime period would result in a timely resolution.

Low scores and ties remained common in football for decades. Twenty percent of NFL games in 1932 ended in ties, which led the league to abandon the college rule book and create their own in 1933. The NFL rule book included three changes to enhance scoring and reduce ties: 

1. They moved the goal posts from the end line to the goal line, reversing the 1927 switch made under the college rules.

2. Like the colleges, the NFL added hash marks to the field, which had numerous consequences for opening up offenses. (See here for a full explanation.)

3. The NFL dropped the rule requiring forward passes to be thrown from five yards or more yards behind the line of scrimmage. This change enabled the quick passing game, gave passers more leeway when scrambling, and had other ramifications.

The NFL's combination of rule changes worked. The 1933 NFL season saw the doubling of made field goals and points scored overall, while the pass completion percentage rose to an astounding 37 percent (not a typo). The result was that less than five percent of games ended in ties. Of course, while the NFL welcomed the substantial tie reduction, the rule changes did not eliminate them. Neither did they create an effective mechanism to handle those ties that occurred, which remains true for the NFL nearly ninety years later.