Bill Polian rarely admits to "changing his mind" about anything. However, when it comes to the proposed overtime rule change, the stats presented in favor of a change were just too much for Polian (a powerful member of the NFL's Competition Committee) to ignore.

From Albert Breer of the Boston Globe, via PFT:

"No matter where you came down on the subject," Polian said, "whether you were a pure two-possession guy or a status quo guy, as I was going in, when you saw the statistics broken down from 1994-2009, and you saw the team winning the toss winning 60 percent of the time, and then you saw the accuracy of field-goal kickers, both in distance and accuracy over that period of time, it's obvious that it's game that from 1994 on is very different than what we had prior to 1994," he said.  "[Before that], essentially, there was no difference between team winning the toss and losing it."

Personally, I am all for the change to overtime. However, I firmly believe that if you change the rule, it must be for both the regular season and the post-season. Having different sets of rules for the playoff and non-playoff games sends a mixed signal to fans. Basically, the league does not want to f*ck up a playoff game. Thus, the new proposed OT rule.

However, they seem to have no issue f*cking up a regular season game. For them, that's OK. Of course, those of you who spent your hard earned money on regular season games can go screw yourself. Those games are not as important, and do not warrant rule changes to OT. If the NFL does not see that as the message getting sent, they are both blind and dumb.

The issue also seems to involve the players, who are not fans of the proposed change it seems:

Polian also explained that the change is being considered for the postseason only because the NFLPA is opposed to extending games.

"We listened to the players a great deal.  There was a concern [about lengthening games], and we recognized it," Polian said.

Oh please!

I've come down on the side of the players on several issues, including this big labor issue. However, not wanting the OT rules in the regular season is just plain dumb. I wonder how some these players will feel in a few months when they lose a game in OT on a 47 yard FG, and that game keeps them out of the post-season. As a fan, I know that would piss me right the hell off, and if it did not piss off the players, I'd want those players off my team.

The players need to remove their heads from their butts on this one and embrace the OT rule change for every game, save perhaps pre-season. Different sets of rules for post-season and for regulation season often lead to disaster.