NFL franchise ownership committee to discuss possible changes in replay rules -NFL News
A meeting of the National Football League (NFL) franchises’ owners due next week is going to review and possibly come up with an amendment to the league’s replay rules.
The annual moot of the owners with NFL’s commissioner, Roger Goodell, in chair has been proposed to eliminate the role of referees from the instant replay reviews.
Furthermore, the meeting is going to recommend an increase in the role of booth officials, which is expected to cut a significant amount of time currently spent on the exercise.
NFL’s competition committee, which has been prompted by the Buffalo Bills over the issue, is going to table the proposal before the ownership committee’s meeting for consideration and approval.
Rich McKay, president of the Atlanta Falcons and chairman of the committee, said:
"This proposal will definitely spark some discussion. We developed our system based on the last time we had replay. That's how we developed the referee to be the decision maker."
Furthermore, the committee is likely to recommend changes in the players’ injury rules.
According to the proposed changes, a player who is injured in the preseason or anytime before the schedule of the season should be marked in the category of being able to return after six weeks and able to play after eight weeks.
Currently, the rule dictates that a player injured in such a scenario should sit out the entire season while being on the injured reserve list and sometimes teams lose key players in spite of their recovery and ability to return to play the game.
It is for the first time since the end of the last NFL season that the franchises’ owners are meeting to discuss a number of pertaining and pending issues.
Apart from other issues, the regulatory changes with regard to players’ safety and increasing the competitiveness of the game are brought on the meeting’s agenda.
With the possible change in the players’ injury and recovery process, the players would avoid skipping the entire seasons once and after being placed on the IR list.
So far, nothing has come out about any chance the office will be discussing the issues such as concussions and head hits.
Some commentators also believe that the league office might introduce a ban on head hits, to increase players’ safety on the field.
Meanwhile, the competition committee is expected to propose the expansion of overtime rule in the postseason games i.e. playoffs and championship games. It is implemented in the regular season currently.
It is difficult to ascertain at this moment if the league is going to consider and most importantly approve all these proposed changes. As at the end, it is going to be the majority decision.
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