List of NFL tied games

In the National Football League (NFL), a tied game occurs when a regular season game ends with both teams having an equal score. If a game is tied after regulation (60 minutes, divided into four quarters of 15 minutes), a 15-minute sudden-death overtime period is held. Under current overtime rules adopted in 2012, "Teams . . . have the opportunity to possess the ball at least once in the extra period unless the team that receives the [first] overtime kickoff scores a touchdown on its first possession." The game can also automatically end on a safety or a defensive touchdown. If the team that received the opening kickoff instead scores a field goal, the other team has an opportunity to tie or surpass that score; if they are able to tie the score, the next team to score any points wins. Prior to the rule change, any score by either team in overtime would win the game, which was proved to grant a substantial advantage to the team that won the coin toss. Ties have counted as a half-win and half-loss in league standings since 1972; before that, ties were not counted in the standings at all. Since the National Hockey League eliminated ties by adopting the shootout following the 2004–05 NHL lockout, the NFL is one of only two of the four major professional sports leagues in North America to have tied games in regular-season play, as Major League Baseball (in the modern era since 1900) and the National Basketball Association have historically played until there is a winner.

Tie games were once frequent in the NFL, but have become uncommon because of a rule change in 1974 that added one sudden death overtime period (15 minutes) to regular-season and preseason games. Unlike soccer (association football), in which teams routinely play for a draw (for the benefit of a point in the standings), NFL teams rarely play for ties. In general, tied games in the NFL are frowned upon by both teams and fans. Because tied games are rare, some players have not known they were allowed in the NFL, such as former Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb, who said after a tie game against the Cincinnati Bengals that he did not know a tie was a possible result.

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