Week 4 of the 2025 NFL season gave fans a thrilling showdown between the Dallas Cowboys and the Green Bay Packers, until the ending left everyone frustrated. After four hours of high-scoring action, the game finished in a 40-40 tie.
NBA superstar Kevin Durant was among those unimpressed, and on national television, he called for a major rule change. His simple fix is borrowing a system from college football that guarantees excitement and no ties.
What Rule Change Does Kevin Durant Want To See in the NFL?
Durant, who will be kickstarting his 18th season this year, joined Kay Adams on the “Up & Adams” show on Monday. When asked how he’d improve the NFL’s overtime format, Durant had an answer ready.
“I would make them like college,” Durant said. “When you start off at like the 30 and you get four downs to try to score, and we go back and forth, see who scored the last, like you get a chance, right? If you score first, and then I get to score, just keep playing up to whoever gets to stop.”
Durant argued the college football system is fairer and avoids draining both players and fans. “And it’s only a few plays, you’re not running all the way downfield, you’re not crashing to each other, you know, it’s almost like a goal-line type of standoff, so instead of ties, I approach it that way,” he added.
The Cowboys-Packers tie on Sept. 28 was only the second-highest scoring tie in NFL history, ending with the Packers kicking a field goal as overtime expired. For Durant, that anticlimactic conclusion is exactly what the league should prevent moving forward.
Why Did the Cowboys-Packers Tie Leave Fans and Players Frustrated?
The tie was especially crushing for Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott, who is now in his 10th NFL season. “You don’t play the game for ties,” he said after the game, clearly unsatisfied with the game outcome.
As per USA Today, until Sunday night, Prescott had never experienced a tie, and no Cowboys team had since 1969. Green Bay’s last tie was back in 2018.
Likewise, Micah Parsons, who was traded to the Packers just before the season began, was also visibly heartbroken after the clash with his old team in Dallas ended in a tie. The matchup had been billed as one of the most emotional games of the year, with fans glued to every play, only to see the result end in a stalemate.
The NFL’s current rule allows each team one possession in a 10-minute overtime period. If the score is still tied after that, the game ends without a winner. On Sunday, Green Bay played for the field goal as the clock hit zero, sealing the 40-40 draw. It was technically historic, but not in a way fans wanted.
For context, college football has long avoided ties with an overtime system that starts each team at the opponent’s 25-yard line and continues until one team can’t match the other’s score. Just days earlier, Virginia beat No. 8 Florida State 46-38 in double overtime, the type of dramatic ending Durant believes the NFL should adopt.
