SEATTLE, Jan. 7 (UPI) -- The NFL playoffs begin Saturday with a major change in the rules and with the defending Super Bowl champions being involved in the opening game.
The New Orleans Saints, who pulled off an emotional victory over Indianapolis in last year's NFL title game, will start the post-season action by visiting Seattle -- a team that made it into the playoffs with a losing record.
Indianapolis will host the New York Jets in Saturday's second game. Baltimore will visit Kansas City and Green Bay will travel to Philadelphia Sunday.
The top two teams in each conference -- New England and Pittsburgh in the AFC and Atlanta and Chicago in the NFC -- will have a bye past the wild-card round.
This year's playoff contests will be spiced by a change in the rules governing overtime. Since the first post-season overtime game was played in 1958, the team that has scored first has been the winner. There have been 27 such games in NFL history, including two last year.
Now, however, if first possession of the overtime ends with a field goal, the scoring team will have to kick off and the other team will have a chance to either answer with a field goal or with a touchdown that would win the contest.
If the first possession ends with a touchdown, the game will be over. If the opening possession ends with no score, the overtime will proceed as it has in the past -- with the first team to get on the board winning the contest.
The change will cause coaches to have to make a decision as to whether they want to attempt a field goal if their team drives deep into the opposing club's territory on the opening possession.
In the past, kicking a field goal in such situations would be automatic but now, depending on the situation, attempting to score a touchdown might be preferable, since that would ensure a victory.
