Both teams normally get an opportunity—but the clock still controls.
Published
NFL overtime is modified sudden death. An opening touchdown no longer ends a regular-season or postseason game by itself, but “both teams get the ball” is only a shortcut: a legal kick recovery can count as an opportunity, a turnover can supply actual possession, and the regular-season period does not extend just to provide a response.
Quick ruling: under the NFL's 2026 Official Playing Rules, Rule 16, each team must have an opportunity to possess once. If the first team scores, the other team can answer; after both opportunities, a lead wins and a tie becomes sudden death. Regular-season overtime is one 10-minute period and can end in a tie. Postseason overtime uses 15-minute periods until there is a winner. A safety by the kickoff team on the receiving team's initial possession ends the game immediately.
Effective rules
Scope: NFL games in the 2026 season
This page applies the National Football League's 2026 Official Playing Rules, which the NFL states are in effect for the 2026 season. The controlling provision is Rule 16, Section 1, supported by Rule 4 on timing, Rule 11 on scoring and Rule 15 on replay.
Rule 16 Article 1 names NFL regular-season and postseason games. It does not govern NCAA football or other professional leagues, and it does not provide overtime for NFL preseason games. The Super Bowl is a postseason game for this purpose.
The regular-season possession rule changed for the 2025 season. The 2026 rulebook retains that wording; none of the listed 2026 amendments changes Rule 16.
At a glance
The numbers and limits
Up to 3 minutes: intermission after regulation before overtime begins.
10 minutes: the single regular-season overtime period.
3 timeouts each per overtime half: postseason allowance.
No coaching challenges: every overtime review is initiated by the Replay Official.
Coin toss
Who receives first
At the end of regulation, the Referee tosses a coin at midfield and the visiting captain calls it (Rule 16-1-2). Rule 4-2-2 supplies the toss privileges: the first choice concerns receiving or kicking, or which goal to defend; the other captain receives the remaining privilege.
Postseason administration also recognizes deferring the first choice: if the initial toss winner deferred, that affects who chooses at the start of the third overtime period. “Defer” is not another word for choosing a goal, and it should not be used to describe every decision to kick first.
Core sequence
How the first two opportunities work
Rule 16-1-3 and 16-1-4 use the phrase opportunity to possess. If the first team to possess scores a field goal or touchdown, play continues so the other team can answer. The second team's result then decides what happens:
First team scores a field goal: the second team wins with a touchdown, extends the game with a matching field goal, and loses if its initial possession ends scoreless.
First team scores a touchdown and Try: the second team can answer with a touchdown and a Try that ties or overtakes the first score. A necessary Try is played even if the touchdown came as period time expired.
First team scores nothing: it has already had its opportunity. The next score by either team wins, so the second team's possession is already sudden death.
Both initial opportunities finish level: the next score by any method wins.
The phrase “both teams get a drive” is therefore misleading. A team's required opportunity can end on a kick, a failed fourth down, a turnover or the regular-season clock.
Regular season
The 10-minute ceiling can cut off the answer
Rule 16-1-3 creates one 10-minute period. It ends even if the second team never received the ball or is still on its initial possession. If the score is tied when the period legally ends, the game is a tie; if one team leads, that team wins.
This makes the possession promise conditional on available time. If the opening team consumes the period and scores on the final play, the opponent does not receive an extra possession. A live down continues after the clock reaches 0:00, and Rule 4-8 can require an untimed down after specified accepted fouls, so the display reaching zero is not always the legal end of the period.
Each team has two timeouts. Rule 16 applies the general fourth-quarter timing provisions, including the two-minute warning. All overtime replay reviews come from the Replay Official; a coach cannot challenge.
Postseason
Fifteen-minute periods continue to a winner
Rule 16-1-4 uses 15-minute periods and permits no tie. If a period ends with the score tied, another begins. Another period also begins if the second team's initial possession is unfinished—even when that team is temporarily behind.
There is a two-minute intermission between periods. Teams change goals after the first and third overtime periods. Each team has three timeouts during an overtime half; the first two periods form the first half, but there is no halftime intermission after the second. At the start of the third period, the other captain normally receives first choice of the toss privileges. After four periods, there is another coin toss, and play continues as long as necessary.
Possession test
Actual possession is different from an opportunity
Under Rule 16-1-5(b), the defense actually gains possession only when it catches, intercepts or recovers a loose ball. Merely touching a pass or having a chance to recover a fumble is not possession.
Rule 16-1-5(c) supplies special treatment for kicks:
The kickoff itself is an opportunity for the receiving team. If the kicking team legally recovers it, the receiving team's required opportunity has still been used.
If a punt or field-goal attempt crosses the line of scrimmage and the receiving team muffs it, that counts as the receiving team's opportunity even if the kicking team recovers.
Outside those kicking situations, a team must establish actual possession; a touch or muff alone is not enough.
These definitions matter because sudden death may begin without both offenses ever running a conventional drive.
Turnovers
A defensive touchdown is a consequence, not the named exception
If the kicking team's defense intercepts or recovers a fumble on the receiving team's opening possession, both teams have then possessed. A return touchdown ends the game because the turnover supplied the second team's possession and the score put it ahead—not because Rule 16 lists every defensive touchdown as a separate exception.
When the first team scored before the response possession, Rule 16-1-5(a) lets a down containing the second team's interception or fumble run to its conclusion. A return score can count. If the interceptor or recovering player goes to the ground and makes no effort to advance, the covering official ends the game.
Safety exception
One result ends the opening possession immediately
Rules 16-1-3(a) and 16-1-4(a) state the express exception: if the team that kicked off to begin overtime scores a safety on the receiving team's initial possession, the kickoff team wins immediately.
This is narrower than saying “any safety ends the first possession.” The decisive facts are which team kicked off and that the safety occurred on the receiving team's initial possession. Later, after both opportunities, any safety is simply the next score and ends the game.
Fouls
A turnover may not legally end the response
Suppose the first team scored, then the responding team throws an interception. Ordinarily its opportunity is over. But Rule 16-1-5 Note 2 says that if the opponent fouled before the change of possession, the response possession has not legally ended and the game cannot finish on that down.
Penalty choices can become restricted when one option would manufacture a second initial possession. This is an officiating-administered edge case: track the accepted enforcement and whether it extends the same possession instead of treating the on-field turnover alone as final.
Worked case 1
Opening touchdown with little regular-season time left
Situation: under the 2026 NFL rules, Team A receives first and scores a touchdown plus a successful one-point Try with 1:20 remaining.
Ruling: Team B may respond, but only within the time left in the 10-minute period. A touchdown and one-point Try ties the score and starts sudden death if time remains; a touchdown and successful two-point Try puts Team B ahead and ends the game. If Team B's possession is unfinished when the period legally ends and it is still behind, Team A wins. Rule 16-1-3 does not add time to complete the response.
Worked case 2
The kickoff team recovers the opening kick
Situation: Team A kicks off to start overtime and legally recovers the kick before Team B controls it.
Ruling: Team B is treated as having had its opportunity because a kickoff is an opportunity for the receiving team. Team A now has the ball, and the next score wins. The decisive provision is Rule 16-1-5(c), not whether Team B's offense took a snap.
Worked case 3
Interception during the response, with a defensive foul
Situation: Team A kicked a field goal first. On Team B's response, Team A intercepts, but Team A committed a foul before the interception.
Ruling: the game cannot end merely on that turnover. Under Rule 16-1-5 Note 2, Team B's possession has not legally ended; the officials apply the available penalty enforcement that extends the initial possession. The foul before the change of possession is the decisive fact.
Worked case 4
A playoff response crosses the period boundary
Situation: Team A scores a field goal first in a postseason game. Team B is driving when the first 15-minute overtime period ends.
Ruling: Team B retains the ball and continues its initial possession in the next period. Rule 16-1-4(d) expressly continues play when the second team's initial possession has not ended. The period boundary is not a turnover and does not erase down, distance or possession.
Decision path
Resolve an NFL overtime play in six checks
Confirm that it is an NFL regular-season or postseason game under the 2026 rules.
For the regular season, note the time left; the 10-minute ceiling can override an unfinished response.
Identify whether the first team scored and by how many points, including its Try.
Track actual possession and the special kicking-play opportunities in Rule 16-1-5(c).
If possession changed, check whether a foul means the prior possession did not legally end.
After both opportunities and any turnover down has run to its legal conclusion, award the game to the team ahead; if level, the next score wins. In the postseason, continue periods until that happens.
Common mistakes
Four shortcuts that fail
“Both teams are guaranteed a full drive”: no. The regular-season clock can expire, and a kicking-play opportunity can count without an offensive snap.
“The first touchdown wins”: not in the 2026 regular season or postseason. The opponent normally has an opportunity to answer.
“A turnover always ends the game”: only when the score and completed-opportunity tests say so; a foul before the turnover may keep the response alive.
“NFL and college overtime are equivalent”: they are separate rulesets. NCAA overtime does not use the NFL's Rule 16 kickoff-and-clock structure.
Current-rule history
Why older explanations are often wrong
The NFL adopted the both-teams opportunity for postseason games in March 2022. For the 2025 season it amended Rule 16-1-3 to extend that approach to the regular season, while retaining the single 10-minute limit. The 2026 rulebook carries the aligned possession structure forward.
An explainer stating that an opening touchdown automatically wins a current regular-season NFL game is therefore using a pre-2025 rule. The remaining timing difference still matters: postseason play continues; regular-season play can stop before the response is completed.
Source note: checked on 25 August 2026 against the NFL's 2026 season rulebook. The page states the regular-season and postseason differences contained in Rule 16; it does not import NCAA or other football codes. No post-publication Rule 16 amendment or 2026 overtime trial was listed by the NFL at the time of checking.
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