Hard to think there is any reason for this besides reducing the chance of overrun in Sunday games. Don't want to join a marquee afternoon game in process after a long overtime in non-local markets. Don't want to push back 60 Minutes too long either. And cutting commercial breaks is out of the question.
NFL considering shortening OT to 10 minutes.
Examples of celebrations to be allowed under the new guidelines:
»Using the football as a prop after a touchdown
»Celebrating on the ground
»Group demonstrations
It appears this is a go.
Plus, they're relaxing TD celebration restrictions!
The "let's shorten OT for player safety" argument is pretty weak. 22 (granted, a little surprised there were that many) of the 1,280 regular-season games since the OT rule change have gone 10+ minutes in OT. So 1.7% of all games.
Just gonna lead to more ties which people will bitch about. Hopefully maybe it'll convince coaches to be more aggressive and go for TDs rather than FGs in OT. But given NFL coaches' predilection with taking the safe option, I won't be holding my breath
So much this. The playoff margin is so thin (and coaches' jobs are so insecure), the "a tie is better than a loss" mindset is going to prevail.