It was supposed to be about privacy, not professional football, but league and team officials are now casting a wary eye toward a pending federal law that could dramatically alter how NFL franchises report and deal with players' injuries.

Known as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (or HIPAA), the law was originally passed by Congress in 1996. It will be hammered into its final configuration this summer and take effect in April 2003. The law was designed, in effect, to increase the protection of health-care information. It would preclude the distribution of medical information without the consent of the patient.

Now the NFL is concerned that it would limit the information players share with trainers, short-circuit the regular medical updates trainers pass on to coaches, and preclude teams from issuing weekly injury reports. The NFL will take up the matter of HIPPA at its next scheduled owners meeting, in late October in New York, but already the law is making for some interesting discussion.

"It would certainly, if we followed it precisely, cause an upheaval in the way that we do things," said Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney. "I don't know that they can just take a broad brush and apply it to everyone, especially professional athletes and franchises, but we'll have to wait and see what the final (law) looks like when everything is said and done."

In its original form, HIPAA was supposed to force health care providers to file claims electronically, which would have substantially cut costs. But legislators used HIPAA as an excuse to enact a wider-ranging privacy law, their aim to cut down on the availability of medical reports to computer hackers.

There have been reports in recent days about how HIPAA, particularly if applied to NFL players, could affect betting lines on league games or force bookmakers to seek alternate means for acquiring injury information. The league is more concerned, however, about the financial exposure it could risk by putting an injured player -- one who perhaps does not disclose his injury to a trainer -- on the field.

And there is the matter of competitive balance, assuming some teams disseminate their medical information and others do not. If teams can't accurate classify the scope of an injury, it could precipitate all kinds of problems.

"It creates problems for us if suddenly the injury information we all get as a matter of course is now manipulated," Cincinnati Bengals owner Mike Brown acknowledged. "They tried to make one size fit all. I'm sure the (congressmen) weren't thinking about the consequences when it came to professional sports leagues."

Some league officials, several agents, and some NFL Players Association officials feel that the current collective bargaining agreement might already address the issue. Others feel that the CBA might have to be altered to more directly address the ramifications of HIPAA, depending on the its final form. The current bargaining agreement, they suggest, might not apply to the new law.

There apparently is some chance that the league might have to ask all its players to sign waivers that would allow injury information to be distributed.

League spokesman Greg Aiello said the NFL is closely monitoring HIPAA and "will be prepared to advise clubs" when the final version of the law is fashioned.

Len Pasquarelli is a senior writer for ESPN.com.