Editor’s note: “Behind the News” is the product of Sun staff assisted by the Sun’s AI lab, which includes a variety of tools such as Anthropic’s Claude, Perplexity AI, Google Gemini and ChatGPT.

The NFL has enacted several major rule changes for the 2025 season that affect overtime, kickoffs, onside kicks, first-down measurement and penalty reviews.

Each team guaranteed a possession in overtime

New rule: Both teams are now guaranteed a possession in all regular-season overtime games, regardless of whether the first team scores a touchdown [2].

Old rule: A touchdown by the first team ended the game immediately; only a field goal allowed the other team a chance [3].

Reason for change: The new rule aligns regular-season overtime with postseason, enhancing fairness — no team is eliminated

See Full Page