The owners previously considered the proposal, made by the Chiefs following their loss in the AFC championship game in January after the New England Patriots scored a touchdown on the opening possession of overtime, at the annual league meeting in March. But it was instead tabled for possible consideration at next week’s meeting in Key Biscayne, Fla.

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“When you table something, you table it because you don’t have enough support,” one person close to the deliberations said Thursday evening. “It was tabled for a reason.”

The proposal would need to be approved by at least 24 of the 32 teams. The league was prepared to remove it from the itinerary for next week’s meeting until Chiefs owner Clark Hunt informed the NFL around midweek that he wanted to have the proposal reconsidered.

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“It was scratched up until [Wednesday] night,” the person with knowledge of the deliberations said.

It’s possible that the Chiefs will modify the proposal to have it apply only to postseason games. But the measure does not have the backing of the competition committee, making its ratification unlikely.

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Under the current overtime format, a team can win with a touchdown on the opening possession. If a team gets a field goal on the opening possession, its opponent gets a chance to tie the game with a field goal or win it with a touchdown. If both teams get field goals, the next team to score wins.

Supporters of the proposal say that guaranteeing each team a possession in overtime is necessary for fairness, especially in this era of revved-up offensive play. Chiefs officials said in March that they made the proposal to promote such fairness, not merely in reaction to the outcome of the AFC championship game.

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But others within the NFL are wary of extending games any further and believe the system already is fair enough.

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“It didn’t have full support from the [competition] committee,” the person close to the deliberations said. “It’s tough to get a rule passed without the support of the committee. ... [The Chiefs] are going to have to work the clubs between now and next week. ... [Limiting the proposal to postseason games only] is the one area where they had some interest.”

Another person with knowledge of the process said this week that the Chiefs’ proposal was unlikely to even make it to a formal vote next week. But not everyone is as pessimistic. A high-ranking official with one NFL team said the proposal might have a chance to be ratified.

The competition committee also is expected to seek approval to make tweaks before the 2019 regular season to the rule change that makes pass interference reviewable by instant replay.

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As the league and the competition committee continue to work through the details of applying the new rule, they want the flexibility to make changes in a bid to avoid the sort of confusion that existed last season with the application of the helmet rule and the standards for roughing-the-passer penalties.

“The committee wants to make sure this has the proper implementation,” a person familiar with the process said. “Everyone wishes they had something like this a year ago.”