My Honest Thoughts on Ties in the NFL

I've been sitting on this for a while; I've talked about the history of OT in the NFL a number of times, and how much I've loved that OT period in regular season games, but I've never addressed the elephant in the room. It's been talked about quite a bit, mostly with disdain and some confusion, so let's get to it. Stalemates. Draws. Ties. They exist in the NFL. In the immortal words of WWE's current United States Champion, "Let's talk about it."

To put it succinctly, I love ties in the NFL, and for two reasons. One, we hardly see them, and two, they mess up the standings in such wonderful fashion. Regarding that former statement, ties used to be a regular thing. Between 1920 and 1973, there was no overtime in regular season games. OT only took place in playoff games, and there were no official playoffs until 1933, and even then, it was only the NFL Championship and any needed tiebreaker games. So yeah, regular season games had four quarters, and that's it. And if the game ended tied after 60 minutes of regulation play, that was that.

That format resulted in a lot of ties games back then. There were 290 tied games between 1920 and 1973, which averaged to about five tie games a season. Even as the AFL was established in 1960, and the leagues merged in 1970, the format remained the same. All of that changed in 1974, as since that season, overtime has been part of regular season games. When the NFL instilled overtime in 1974, it was under the old sudden death format. That nearly eliminated ties, they became so rare due to OT being sudden death. This was because under sudden death, a team could win the coin toss, get the ball, go the yards needed to get to field goal range, kick the field goal, and that's that. Despite this, the first regular season overtime game, played between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Denver Broncos on September 22, 1974, ended in a 35-35 tie. Fun fact: 1974 was Pittsburgh's first of six Super Bowl Championship seasons, and with that, the 1974 Steelers still serve as the only Super Bowl Champions with a tie in their regular season standings.

The sudden death overtime rule was eliminated following the end of the 2009 season, with the 2010 playoffs and the 2012 regular season introducing the previous rule that we were used to. Under that format, while the coin toss decided possession, the first possession had to result in a touchdown to end the game. Otherwise, the other team would get the ball with a chance to win. If the first possession resulted in a FG, then the other team would have a chance to win with a touchdown. If each team scored only a FG, then sudden death rules apply. Sudden death rules also apply if the opening possession results in no scoring at all.

My thought when I heard that this OT would be part of regular season games: "This will increase the number of ties."

There have only been 31 tied games since 1974, and 17 of them took place between that year and 2011 (the final year that sudden death OT existed at all). On October 24, 1983, the New York Giants and the St. Louis Cardinals (then NFC East rivals) played to a 20-20 tie, which still serves as the only tie to take place on Monday Night Football. 1986 was the first season since the addition of regular season OT to feature two tied games; one between the 49ers and Falcons (then NFC West rivals) and one between the Cardinals and Eagles (then NFC East Rivals). Both games ended in the same score: 10-10. It would happen again in 1997 when the Eagles and Ravens played to a 10-10 tie on November 16 of that year, and a week later, the Giants and Washington played to a 7-7 tie (the first tie in the Sunday Night Football slot).

2008 saw an infamously funny moment when, after the Eagles and Bengals played to a 13-13 tie, Eagles QB Donovan McNabb stated that he didn't know that games could end tied. Now he knows. Oh, and these two teams would tie each other again in 2020. Go figure.

I was right about the following rule changes resulting in more ties, because since 2012 (the first regular season to feature modified OT rules), there have been 14 tie games, averaging to one per season. 2012 saw the San Francisco 49ers and the St. Louis Rams play to a 24-24 tie, and they actually almost tied each other again a few weeks later. The first tie to actually feature scoring took place on November 24, 2013 between the Minnesota Vikings and the Green Bay Packers, and I remember this one. This was during that period where Aaron Rodgers was badly injured and we had to use various backups. We trailed 23-7, but Matt Flynn led the comeback with a pair of 8-point TDs to tie it. In overtime, Packers struck first with a field goal, Vikings tied it, and nothing else after that. 26-26 was the final score.

We are approaching the 10th anniversary of one of the best ties I've ever seen. On October 23, 2026, the Arizona Cardinals and the Seattle Seahawks battled it out in a very low-scoring game. The game went to OT tied at three, and OT was going by fast with the two teams trading field goals to make it 6-6. The Cards get deep into FG range for a chip shot. Barely over 20 yards. Missed. Then it was the Hawks' turn. They ended up in chip shot FG range. Wide left with six seconds left. Those ticks ran out, and the game ended 6-6. This was on NBC's Sunday Night Football, marking the first tie to take place during the current NBC run of that primetime slot.

History was made again a week later when Washington and the Bengals played to a 27-27 tie. This was the old school tie (no scoring in OT), and it was an international game; played at Wembley Stadium in London. To date, it's the only NFL tie to take place outside the US. On the following year, the NFL cut regular season OT by 33 1/3%; from a 15 minute period to just 10 minutes. Opening week of 2018 saw the Steelers and Browns play to a 21-21 tie, the first opening week tie since 1971, and a result that actually snapped the Browns' 17-game losing streak, though it became a winless streak that ended two weeks later. 2019 also started with a tie as well, with the Lions and Cardinals playing to a 27-27 tie. The Lions had another memorable tie in 2021, when they and the Steelers played to a very messy 16-16 draw. For the Lions, they entered that week at 0-8, and that tie eliminated them from being completely futile. Oh, and Steelers running back Najee Harris had a McNabb moment; he didn't know games could end tied.

Overtime was changed most recently in 2023, and now, both teams are guaranteed to have the ball, even if the opening possession ends with a touchdown. This is the current rule in the league, and they instilled this into regular season games last year, which brings me to, well, you know. September 28, 2025. Sunday Night Football. Packers @ Cowboys. It's always fun when these two teams play each other, especially at Jerry World. We saw Jordan Love and Dak Prescott truly show why they are two of the best QBs in the league. They tore it up big time! OT was needed tied at 37. A 5:30 drive by Dallas resulted in a field goal. Our chance saw us nearly allow time to run out on us. Love's last pass was incomplete and left us with one second left, and Brandon McManus made the FG and that was it. A 40-40 tie, the second highest scoring tie in NFL history, the highest scoring tie since OT was added in 1974, the second tie in the now 21-year history of NBC's SNF, and the best tie I've ever seen.

Of course, the most recent tie was the messy 27-27 battle between the New York Giants and the Washington Commanders, which happened as a result of very bad play calling decisions by both head coaches, especially Dan Quinn. This was the third tie between these two teams in the last three decades.

So let's go through the fun facts here. As I stated, there have been 31 tie games since 1974. What team has the most in that stretch? None other than the Green Bay Packers. Seven of the 31 tied games have been played by the Packers, and as a Packers fan, I've seen three of them, including that last one in 2025. Oh, and get this. The Sunday Night Football game this week? Cowboys @ Packers. Oh man! The Houston Texans were the most recent team to get their first ever tie, doing so in 2022's opening week against the Indianapolis Colts. So with that, only one team has never tied in their history, and that's the Jacksonville Jaguars; they're currently playing their 32nd season, and they've never tied once.

Another trivial note: ties weren't counted in a team's winning percentage until the 1972 season, when they were treated as half-win/half-loss. There's two ways to calculate a win percentage for a team with at least one tie. One, divide the tie total in half, and add each half to a team's win total and a team's loss total. Then, take the new win total and divide by the number of games played. The Giants are now 3-1-1 (and still leading the NFC East) after their tie. If you split the one tie in half, they're really 3.5-1.5, and 3.5/5 results in a win percentage of .700. The other method is to double the win total, add the tie to it, and divide by double number of games played. In the Giants' case, it would be (3(2) + 1)/5(2) or (6 + 1)/10. Same result: .700 percentage. Same with the Commanders: 1.5/5 or (2 + 1)/10, equalling a .300 win percentage.

But yeah, regarding ties, I love them. They're rare, they're interesting, and they happen in such crazy ways. More often than not, ties have saved a team's season. The 2012 Niners won the NFC West by a half game because of that tie they had. Same thing happened with the 2013 Packers in the NFC North, and last year's Packers finished a half game above the playoff line thanks to that tie. I do pull for ties sometimes, unless it's my Packers or any of our rivals.

Ties, or the moments leading to them, reminds me of Jerry Seinfeld's joke about seeing "To Be Continued" in TV shows. That moment where you realize a tie could actually happen; there's about a minute left in OT, and you're watching and thinking, "They're not going to make it! There's under a minute left, they have no timeouts and the ball is at their own 20 yard line! They won't get to FG range in time!" I've seen moments like that, and even those are 50-50, because a lot of times, they get those necessary yards and we see a last second OT FG to win it. Other times, we see some freaky stuff happen--a sack, a fumble, a dumb penalty, you name it. And as mentioned before, they do get to FG range, but the kick's missed. At least if a tie happens in a division game (which occurs quite a bit), there's that "To Be Continued" factor, especially if it's the first meeting of the season. When it's non-division, a rematch can only happen in playoff time.

Even though I do love ties, I do find it humorous that the NHL, which had tie games every day, got rid of them, but the NFL still has them. Hell, the Canadian Football League eliminated ties starting this season. The NFL is the only pro football league in North America that still has ties, and I hope that it stays that way. I know fans complain about ties and want them gone because they don't really settle anything and they hardly happen, but ties represent that third possibility, that third column in the standings. Ties can be amazing to see, especially the hotly contested ones. I say, let the stalemates remain in the NFL!