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Cutting OT to 10 minutes won't fix anything, but that might not be the point

Mark J. Rebilas / USA TODAY Sports

The NFL's owners voted Tuesday to reduce overtime in the regular season from 15 minutes to 10. It's unlikely that any of football's pressing issues will be solved by the move, but that might not be the goal.

Ostensibly, the owners believe the five-minute reduction will improve player safety. While it cannot be argued that playing less football will lead to fewer injuries, only a few games each season extend past 10 minutes of overtime, anyway. In fact, over the last 10 seasons only 382 total snaps have been played with 5:00 or less remaining in overtime, according to Pro Football Reference.

Player safety must be improved, everyone agrees. But reducing overtime in such an inconsequential manner is like treating a broken leg with a band-aid.

The NFL might argue that reducing overtime will also eliminate the possibility of a team playing five full quarters on a Sunday and then being forced to suit up again on Thursday. But will five minutes of play really make much of a difference?

While the problem of fatigued players has unquestionably led to sloppy games on Thursdays, there's a better solution here: eliminate "Thursday Night Football." (Or, at the very least, only ask teams coming off a bye to play on Thursdays.)

So, reducing overtime will - at best - have a negligible effect on player safety and bad Thursday play, but will also have a negative effect on the quality of entertainment the NFL offers on Sundays.

Cutting five minutes from overtime will inevitably lead to more ties, as former NFL vice president of officiating Dean Blandino admitted.

The occasional tie is tolerable, and perhaps even a little amusing as a novelty, but more of them isn't something any fan wants to see. There were two ties in 2016 - an increase over the single tie the league has averaged since the current overtime rules were installed in 2012 - and that's two more than we needed.

But more ties could be something the NFL wants. With more ties, more teams remain in the playoff hunt deeper into the season. This could lead to increased TV ratings in December.

If that's what reducing overtime is really about, the owners should come out and say it.

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