One NFL coach is already criticizing the league’s new OT rule, admits he wanted his team to vote against it

When the NFL’s 32 owners voted last month to change the league’s overtime rules, the proposal passed overwhelmingly with 29 owners voting for it and only three voting against it. The Ravens weren’t one of the three teams to vote against the proposal, but they would have been if John Harbaugh was in charge of the team’s vote. 

During a recent interview on “The Rich Eisen Show,” not only did Harbaugh reveal that he’s against the new OT rule, but he also revealed that Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti voted for the rule even though he knew Harbaugh didn’t like it. 

“Even though our team voted for it, they voted for it over my objection,” Harbaugh said. “I don’t think it solves the problem. Possession is nine-tenths of the law, it’s the most important aspect of the game.”

The new rule, which will guarantee a possession for both teams in overtime, was approved one year after an overtime proposal by the Ravens got shot down by the NFL’s 32 owners. In 2021, the Ravens proposed a “spot-and-choose” rule that came nowhere close to being approved. Only three owners were on board with the idea, which is well short of the 24 needed for a proposal to become a rule. 

Under the spot-and-choose proposal, one team would choose the yard line where the overtime drive starts and the other team would choose whether they want to play offense or defense. 

For instance, if Team A and Team B were playing in overtime and Team A won the coin toss, it would pick any spot on the field where the first drive of OT would start. If it picked the 10-yard line (90 yards away from the end zone), then Team B would get to choose whether it wanted to play offense or defense. The overtime in this proposal would be a sudden-death period, which means the first team to score would win the game. 

Harbaugh thinks that proposal made way more sense. 

“We tried to mitigate it [with our proposal] last year with field position, which…