Fortunately for the San Francisco 49ers on Saturday, January 22, Robbie Gould didn’t misfire on his field goal attempt with four seconds left and booting his kick through the flurries of snow raining down in Green Bay.
Had the ball sailed to the left or right, the 49ers and Packers would have gone to overtime before the Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills clash.
And the latter game, while considered one of the more epic and exhilarating NFL games of all time won by the Chiefs 42-36 in overtime, unfortunately became a hot button topic for this reason: The league’s overtime rules.
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As thrilling as Bills quarterback Josh Allen played along with the rest of his team, he never got the chance to take the field in overtime as Patrick Mahomes marched the Chiefs down the field for this final touchdown:
Patrick Mahomes finds Travis Kelce in the end zone for a touchdown, which closes out the game for Kansas City.
KC moves onto the AFC Championship Game & will play the Cincinnati Bengals. Buffalo’s season comes to an end.
The final touchdown sparked the online conversation:
Should the NFL change the overtime rules?
That question was even brought to the desk of 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan when talking to the Bay Area media on Monday, January 24. And he offered his hot take on the issue.
Is Shanahan Fine With the Current Rules?
While there are fans, pundits and former players who are vocal about the overtime rules — which is the game ends on a touchdown regardless of who has the ball, while the opposing team still has a chance to win if the other settles for a field goal — the 41-year-old Shanahan isn’t bothered by it.
“I think the way we’ve got it is fine,” Shanahan said via 49ers Web Zone. “It doesn’t bother me.”
The fifth-year head coach, 39-42 overall but 2-0 this season in overtime contests, offered this suggestion for any teams that have their gripes about the current rules in place.
“I think you should be able to stop someone on a touchdown if you want it back,” Shanahan said. “That’s fine to me, and I know that it’s real tough not to get it, but I never felt like it wasn’t fair. Those are the rules.”
Shanahan Also Goes the ‘Back in the Day’ Route
While Shanahan is considered a young head coach in his early 40s, he’s old enough to recall the original NFL overtime: When the first team that scored — regardless of field goal, touchdown, or a safety — became the winner.
Was he OK with that one as well?
“I used to think the old one was fine,” Shanahan said. “That was the one I grew up with watching when we had 15 minutes, and the first one scored. I didn’t think much was a problem with that.”
Shanahan remembers when he was watching his father Mike, who won two Super Bowls with the Denver Broncos, work with the extra period. But again, count the 49ers head coach as someone who won’t be complaining about overtime anytime soon.
“I think I do like the ones better now, but give us the rules, and you know the rules, and that’s what you go in trying to win the game on. So usually, my mind doesn’t change based off of what happens,” Shanahan said.
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49ers’ Shanahan Offers Hot Take on NFL’s Overtime Rules