Super Bowl Overtime Rules Explained: Format, time, history, how winner is determined

The NFL's Super Bowl overtime rules are different from those used in the regular season.

While regular season games can end in ties, that cannot happen in the Super Bowl - or in the NFL playoffs in general.

Lack of familiarity with playoff overtime rules has hurt football teams at all levels, but most notably in Super Bowl LVIII.

In that game, the San Francisco 49ers won the coin toss and opted to receive the opening kickoff, then settled for a field goal on their only guaranteed overtime drive. That meant the Kansas City Chiefs needed to score a TD to lift the Lombardi Trophy, and they drove the length of the field to do just that.

Here, we have all you need to know about the Super Bowl overtime rules.

Super Bowl Overtime format

The current overtime format used in the NFL playoffs and Super Bowl was adopted ahead of the 2022 NFL season. Here's how it works:

The overtime period begins with a coin toss. The visiting team captain calls 'heads' or 'tails' while the coin is in the air. If it lands on the side they call, they have four options:

1. Kick the ball to open the overtime period

2. Receive the ball to open the overtime period

3. Select which goal to defend to open the overtime period

4. Defer their decision to the start of the hypothetical third overtime period, giving the team that lost the coin toss option 1, 2 or 3.

Each team has the opportunity to possess the ball at least once during overtime, and each team gets three timeouts.

Because the Super Bowl (or any playoff game) cannot end in a tie, OT is not limited to a single 15-minute period.

If the score is tied and the clock expires on the first overtime period, a new 15-minute period begins with the possessing team continuing its drive, similar to the end of the first or third quarter in regulation. A new period will also begin if the clock expires when the team to get the ball second is trailing amid its initial OT possession.

Once each team has possessed the ball once, the next team to take the lead wins.

For example, in SBLVIII, the 49ers took the lead on the first drive of OT with a field goal, which meant the Chiefs knew they needed more than three points to win the game since they got the ball second. As a result, KC's touchdown ended the game.

The same rules that apply to the end of the first and second halves of regulation apply to the end of a second and fourth OT period. That means the clock will always stop when players run out of bounds and that all instant replay reviews will be initiated by the officials.

If the Super Bowl goes into a fifth OT period, a new coin toss takes place and play continues until a winner is decided.

Prior to 2022, both teams did to have the right to possess the ball in overtime, meaning if the team that received the opening kickoff scored a touchdown on their first possession of overtime, the game was over.

Super Bowl Overtime time, quarter length

Overtime periods are 15 minutes long, and they continue until a winner is decided.

There is no time limit in Super Bowl overtime, because the game cannot end in a tie unlike regular season games.

How is a winner determined in Super Bowl Overtime?

By rule, each team has the right to possess the ball no more than once in Super Bowl overtime. That means once the first drive of OT is finished, the next team to take the lead wins the Super Bowl.

For example, if the first team to get the ball scores and then its defense forces a turnover, gets a stop or allows fewer points on the ensuing drive than its offense scored to begin OT, the team with first possession wins.

But, once the first team scores, the second team knows exactly how many points they need to either win or keep the game alive. If the second team to get the ball scores a TD when the first team kicked a field goal, the second team wins.

If neither team scores on its first possession of OT, the next score wins the Super Bowl.

Super Bowl Overtime history

Super Bowl	Winner	Score	Runner-Up
LI	New England Patriots	34-28 (OT)	Atlanta Falcons
LVIII	Kansas City Chiefs	25-22 (OT)	San Francisco 49ers

Just two Super Bowls have required halftime to decide the winner: Super Bowl LI between the New England Patriots and Atlanta Falcons, and Super Bowl LVIII between the aforementioned 49ers and Chiefs.

In Super Bowl LI, Tom Brady led the Pats back from the 28-3 deficit they faced early in the third quarter. The game took place at the end of the 2016 campaign, before the rule change allowing both teams to get the ball in playoff overtime periods.

After two TDs and a two-point conversion in the last 10 minutes of the fourth quarter, the Patriots won the OT coin toss and Brady marched the team down the field. New England got to Atlanta's 15-yard line, a defensive pass interference in the end zone set them up on the two-yard line, and RB James White punched the ball into the end zone for the win.

In Super Bowl LVIII, the only Super Bowl to utilize the new OT rules, the Chiefs were down three points with less than two minutes remaining in regulation. QB Patrick Mahomes led KC down to San Francisco's 11-yard line, setting up a game-tying chip-shot field goal for Harrison Butker.

San Francisco won the toss in OT, marched down field thanks in part to two receptions of 20+ yards by RB Christian McCaffrey, but settled for a field goal on 4th & 4 from the Chiefs' nine-yard line.

The Chiefs knew they would win with a TD, so Mahomes led the team 75 yards down the field and threw the game-winning TD pass to WR Mecole Hardman to win the team's second consecutive Super Bowl.

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