NFL Owners Meetings: Replay Permanent

Coaches throwing challenge flags and referees sticking their heads in hoods will remain NFL fixtures. Forever.

On Tuesday, instant replay as an officiating tool became a permanent part of pro football.

"Instant replay is an accepted part of the game. It's what we are," said Atlanta Falcons general manager Rich McKay, co-chairman of the competition committee that recommended the change. "There was not really much discussion about it."

League owners voted 30-2, with Cincinnati and Arizona dissenting. All but three stadiums will be equipped with high-definition equipment and will be recabled before the upcoming season, at a cost of as much as $300,000 per club. The stadiums being replaced in Irving, Texas, Indianapolis and East Rutherford, N.J., will not get the updates.

On Tuesday, owners also voted unanimously to allow a second interviewing window for assistant coaches on Super Bowl teams who are in the running for other head coaching jobs. Previously, only during the week after the season ended could an interview be conducted.

The coach's current team would have to grant permission for the second interview, which would take place during the bye week after the conference title games.

"We wanted to make sure that coaches on Super Bowl teams didn't feel it was a disadvantage," McKay said.

One proposal was defeated. Defenses will not be allowed to have a coach-to-player communications device similar to what quarterbacks use. McKay said owners and coaches were concerned about who would be allowed to wear the device with defenses using multiple formations, and the possibility that more than one player could wind up on the field with such a device.

On Wednesday, NFL owners decided to table a proposal to modify the overtime system. The competition committee came up with the idea of moving kickoffs in overtime from the 30- to the 35- yard line. The change would have made it tougher for the team winning the overtime coin toss to get the winning points on the first possession. According to a competition committee study, moving kickoffs up 5 yards would mean a 5-yard difference in the start of drives in overtime.

Also at the meetings:

In a 26-5-1 vote, owners adopted a rule change to penalize a player if he spikes the ball after a non-scoring play has ended. "You have a player celebrating a 3-yard slant play and spiking the ball on this great achievement," McKay said sarcastically. The league felt it took too much time for the officials to chase down the ball. Plus there was the question of bad sportsmanship.

Down-by-contact is now a permanent part of instant replay officiating. A year ago, the league tried a one-year experiment to include runners being ruled down by contact as part of the instant replay reviews. In a 32-0 vote, down-by-contact was made a permanent fixture in replay officiating. Last season there were 17 plays in which a down-by-contact play was challenged. Five calls were overturned. This permanent change eliminates those controversial plays in which a quick whistle by an official on a contact play doesn't have a chance to be reviewed.

The NFL voted to go to the college rule when a quarterback accidentally throws a ball that hits an offensive lineman. Under the old rule, that was a 5-yard penalty because an offensive lineman is ineligible to catch a pass. The league felt that adopting the college rule and not penalizing accidental contact would speed up the game. If a lineman tries to catch the ball, though, the play will result in a 5-yard penalty.

The Bears' proposal of increasing the active game roster size to 47 was shot down, 17-15. It needed 24 votes to pass. The Bears felt keeping two extra active players for games would be a benefit. Opponents felt it would give too much of an advantage to a healthier team. What the league doesn't want is one team having a healthy list of 47 players while another has only 40 healthy players for a game.