Packers rejected rule change that would have given them the ball in OT
Only three teams voted for a 2015 proposal that would guarantee both teams a possession in overtime, but the Packers weren’t one.
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Clay Matthews thinks a college overtime format that gives both teams a possession and chance to score is one that the NFL should adopt, but Green Bay Packers brass didn't agree when that rule change was proposed last year.
According to Rich Campbell of the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Bears proposed a rule change that would guarantee both teams get a possession in overtime, but the Packers voted against it. The proposal came less than two months after the Packers lost in overtime of the NFC Championship against the Seattle Seahawks without ever getting a possession.
If the Packers had voted for the proposal, it wouldn’t have made much difference, as only three teams gave it a thumbs up, Bears chairman George McCaskey told the Chicago Sun-Times.
“So there wasn’t a lot of support for it at all,” McCaskey said. “It was just basically a show of respect for the Packers.”
For a second consecutive season the Packers were eliminated in the playoffs with an overtime loss and, again, the team never had a possession. It took the Arizona Cardinals just three plays to drive the length of the field, thanks to a 75-yard reception by Larry Fitzgerald that set up a 5-yard pass to Fitzgerald for the game-winning score.
Matthews said after the game that "it sucks that we don't have an opportunity" and quarterback Aaron Rodgers also expressed frustration that he never touched the ball again after a Hail Mary sent the game to overtime.
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