Goodell favors changing OT rule in playoffs

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell likes the proposal to modify overtime in the playoffs. Can his support sway enough owners to approve it for next season?

The competition committee recommended Monday in Orlando, Fla., to the 32 owners that a team losing the coin toss and then surrendering a field goal on the first possession should have a series of its own in OT. Such a rules change would need 24 votes for ratification.

"This stays true to the integrity of the game," Goodell said. "The competition committee has come up with something very much worth considering. It keeps the tradition of sudden death, and I think it is responsive to some of the issues that have been brought up.

"It's getting a lot of thought. It's got potential to be a better system."

Statistics examined by the committee showed that since 1994, teams winning the coin toss win the game 59.8 percent of the time.

Those numbers alarmed Indianapolis Colts president Bill Polian, a member of the committee.

"We felt the stats are so arresting that something needs to be done," Polian said. "The original framers of the rule did not project the movement of the kickoff, or (the trend) in improvement of kickers."

One owner who would seem to have reason to favor the modification, Minnesota's Zygi Wilf, is not convinced it's a wise move. The Vikings lost the coin toss for overtime in the NFC title game, then saw the Saints march to a winning field goal on the first - and only - series.

Still, as of Monday, Wilf was leaning toward voting no to a switch.

"We need consistency of the regular season and postseason," he said.

But, as Polian and other committee members point out, the playoffs already have different overtime rules.

"We play until there is a winner," Polian said.

In another matter, Goodell also said he plans to meet Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger about the star's off-field problems.

Goodell already has spoken with team owners about Roethlisberger, who is accused of assaulting a 20-year-old college student in a Georgia nightclub on March 5. Roethlisberger's attorney says the quarterback committed no crime. Roethlisberger has yet to be interviewed by police in Milledgeville, Ga., and charges have not been filed.

"We take this issue very seriously," Goodell said Monday at the NFL meetings. "I am concerned that Ben continues to put himself in this position."

Extra points: Scot McCloughan is out as the 49ers' general manager in a "mutual parting," and director of player personnel Trent Baalke will lead the team into next month's draft. Team president Jed York said it's in the best interest of both parties and called the move a "private personnel matter." ... Mark Ingram Sr., a star NFL player in the 1990s and the father of Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram Jr., was sentenced Monday to more than two additional years in federal prison for jumping bail in an attempt to see his son play in the 2009 Sugar Bowl. ... Jets wide receiver Braylon Edwards signed his $6.1 million tender and reported for the first day of voluntary off-season workouts. Running back Leon Washington chose to not attend the workout, and is one of New York's four restricted free agents who haven't signed their tenders. ... Miami Dolphins running back Ronnie Brown, who had been in the suburban Atlanta area to help celebrate his parents' anniversary, was arrested on a charge of driving under the influence of alcohol and released from jail a few hours later, officials said Monday.