UFL tweaks OT rule after bizarre Storm-Kings finish

A UFL game last week ended in truly unimaginable fashion: A penalty led to an automatic winning score in overtime. The outcome prompted confusion in the stadium, derision on social media and a league decision that it would never happen again.

The UFL this week quickly tweaked the rule, which had been rarely invoked and was understood by only a handful of people. In a larger sense, it was the inevitable consequence of spring football's long-held ambition to reimagine the game.

A unique overtime format, designed to maximize fairness and limit its duration, instead gave the Orlando Storm a 29-27 victory over the Louisville Kings in Week 3. The Kings had unknowingly triggered a rule that calls for an automatic score for the offense if a defensive team commits more than one penalty after overtime begins.

If that scenario occurs again under the updated rule, UFL head of officiating Dean Blandino told ESPN, the offense will not get an automatic score but instead will run another play from the half-yard line. If there is a third penalty on a non-score, the ball would be moved to the quarter-yard line.

"We were not going to wait until the end of the season and go through the offseason process and all of that," Blandino said. "We feel like we need to make a correction now. But we didn't want to make a major, major change going into Week 4. Teams have already played under this set of rules. You've got to be careful and mindful of changing things significantly midstream.

"So what we did here makes it easier to score for the offense after a defensive penalty, but it doesn't award an automatic score."

— United Football League (@TheUFL) April 11, 2026

The entire episode was a byproduct of a core pillar of spring football: to serve as an incubator for on-field innovation in the NFL. That priority, for instance, reimagined kickoffs, which saved the NFL's version from extinction.

In the case of overtime, however, it got complicated.

The UFL's rule can be traced back to the 2020 XFL, which envisioned an overtime that resembled soccer-style shootouts. The XFL, and later the UFL, made it a priority to avoid ties because the league considered them too dissatisfying an outcome for fans. They eschewed traditional sudden death due to fairness concerns, but they also wanted to limit the additional plays that would be added to regulation. A short overtime would minimize wear and tear on players and also lower the chance of a game extending beyond its television window.

The original 2020 rule called for each team to get one play from the 5-yard line to score. The teams would repeat the format for a total of five periods or until one of them was mathematically eliminated. The UFL later changed it to three overtime periods, with the same 5-yard distance.

But Sam Schwartzstein, the XFL executive who was the architect of its rule book, also wanted to get in front of a potentially subversive strategy. In interviews at the time, Schwartzstein said he anticipated defenses committing repeated intentional or semi-intentional fouls to prevent scoring and in essence challenge reluctant officials to throw flags.

To eliminate that possibility, he wrote the caveat that surfaced last weekend in Louisville. The threat of an automatic score seemed like a strong incentive to avoid further penalties that would elongate the game.

The Storm and Kings were tied at 27 when overtime began on Friday. Neither team scored in the first three periods, but the Kings were penalized for pass interference on the Storm's third play. The ball was placed on the 1-yard line for the retry, but the Storm lost three yards on a run.

That put overtime into a sudden death fourth period. The Kings had the ball first and were unable to score. When the sides switched, Kings defensive back Corey Mayfield Jr. was flagged for defensive holding while covering Storm receiver Elijhah Badger on an incomplete pass in the end zone.

Blandino was sitting in the UFL officiating command center. Fox Sports television viewers could hear Blandino reminding referee Adam Savoie that because it was the Kings' second defensive penalty of overtime, the Storm would be awarded two points and thus a victory. Even Savoie seemed uncertain, asking if the rule applied to different periods of overtime -- it does -- before making the announcement to fans in the stadium.

Another official relayed the information to Storm coach Anthony Becht.

Becht's eyes widened.

"That's it?" he asked? "The game's over?"

Becht then turned to the Storm sideline, where players were standing motionless.

"We won!" Becht exclaimed. "That's the second defensive foul. We win! They can't have two defensive fouls!"

Becht then turned toward the field, where his offensive players were still gathered.

"That's it!" he shouted "We won. We won!"

Players appeared confused.

"Come on!" Becht said, motioning toward the sideline. "We won! It's over!"

Fox broadcasted the entire surreal scene as Becht tried to convince his team that it had won. Social media lit up immediately.

UFL co-owner Mike Repole was quick to respond, posting on X that "we owe our fans better."

Schwartzstein joined the conversation as well, posting that "you have to make it so teams aren't influenced to always commit a penalty." In another post, he added: "I never thought it would actually happen because a smart player knows not to play with their hands if their team has already committed a penalty in OT."

Afterwards, Louisville coach Chris Redman could only shake his head.

"That's the rule," he said.

Blandino himself acknowledged that even he did not anticipate the rule coming into play. There have been only four overtimes in the UFL's three-year history, in large part because of the unusual scores that teams accumulate via its one-, two- and three-point options after touchdowns. This season, the UFL added a four-point field goal for kicks of 60 yards and further.

In retrospect, Blandino said, he or one of the on-field officials should have reminded both teams and the FOX broadcast about the rule after the first penalty. Becht said he was aware of the rule but didn't know if it carried over through multiple periods.

"It got a little visually crazy and people weren't on top of it,' he said. "I think if everyone is alerted, people would still have been pissed off. But at the end of the day, it is what it is, and it was our advantage."

Ultimately, Becht said, the Storm were in position to win with or without the flag.

"If he doesn't grab Elijhah Badger, guess what? We're scoring. It was wide open."