NFL owners to discuss rule-change proposals

ON A DAY when Roger Goodell took a sledgehammer to the head of coach Sean Payton and the New Orleans Saints and reaffirmed the NFL's deep concern for the safety of its players, you'll be happy to know that tackling still will be legal next season.

NFL competition committee co-chair Rich McKay and NFL vice president of football operations Ray Anderson held a conference call with reporters Wednesday to go over the 14 rule-change proposals that will be discussed and voted on at next week's owners meeting in Palm Beach, Fla.

None of the proposals includes putting skirts on quarterbacks or requiring defensive players to curtsy before hitting a ballcarrier.

In fact, only two even involve player safety. One, proposed by the Pittsburgh Steelers, would expand the ban on horse-collar tackling to include quarterbacks in the pocket.

The other, proposed by the competition committee, would further restrict crack-back blocks. Currently, if an offensive player lines up outside, he is not allowed to go inside and block a defensive player below the waist. The competition committee's proposal also would make it illegal to hit the player in the head or lead with his own head.

The four most notable rule-change proposals that will be discussed next week:

* A dramatic overhaul of the current instant-replay system. The Buffalo Bills have proposed getting rid of the current "coaches' challenge" system and going to a system similar to one used by colleges that relies on a replay official in the booth to review and overturn incorrect calls.

"The theory is it would speed up the review process by following the college model," said McKay, the Atlanta Falcons president. The proposal isn't likely to get the 24 votes it would need to pass.

* Expanding the league's playoff overtime rule to the regular season. The current playoff overtime rule allows both teams at least one possession if the team that receives the overtime kickoff doesn't score a touchdown. That's different from the first-team-that-scores-wins format used in the regular season. Considering that the league's coaches are very much in favor of a uniform overtime rule, it likely will get passed.

"Strategically, [coaches] like to prepare in the postseason the same way they do in the regular season," McKay said. "They don't want to have different rules and change their approach to overtime."

* Automatically reviewing all plays involving turnovers. Currently, those plays can be reviewed only if a coach challenges the on-field call. Last year, the league began reviewing all scoring plays. The turnover rule is expected to be approved.

* In an attempt to spur more in-season trade activity, the owners will consider a proposal to move the trade deadline from the sixth week of the season to Week 8.

The proposal to move the trade deadline is interesting. When the league eliminated the automatic acceleration of salary-cap money on trades last summer as part of the new collective bargaining agreement, it thought it would prompt more in-season trades. But that didn't really happen.

"There's a lot of talk about [trades], but not many transactions, because of the nature of our sport being a team sport," McKay said. "Our thought was that potentially there could be more trades now, because of the adjustment of the cap. This is a way to give people a little more leeway [to make deals]. "