PHILADELPHIA -- What was supposed to have been the headline agenda item for the NFL spring meetings here was reduced to minutiae status Wednesday as the owners failed to even vote on a proposal to expand the current playoff field to 14 teams.

In fact, once it became clear the initiative was far short of the three-quarters vote needed for approval (24 of 32 owners), the Kansas City Chiefs withdrew the proposal. And in his media briefing at the conclusion of the Wednesday session, commissioner Paul Tagliabue suggested the proposal might not even be resurrected next year.

	Tagliabue

"The feeling was we need to get more seasons under our belt," Tagliabue said. "There is no mandate to undo what we have until we have more time to assess the situation. And it would have been premature to make a decision after one season (of realignment)."

There was sentiment from a few owners to push for a vote because they felt that, even absent the 24 votes required for approval, there might have been a simple majority that favored an expanded playoff pool. But in the NFL, when issues lack sufficient votes, they are frequently tabled or not even brought to a ballot. In this instance, the proposal was completely toppled, not tabled.

Tagliabue had speculated Tuesday that the proposal on the playoffs might not make it to the balloting stage.

The influential competition committee two weeks ago voted unanimously, 8-0, against the proposal. The committee did, however, recommend the issue be revisited after the 2003 season, the second campaign played under the current eight-division alignment and scheduling format. That recommendation, though, could be ignored.

In fact, it now seems the issue of an expanded playoff pool might not be raised until after the 2005 season, when the league's television contracts expire. The networks apparently have demonstrated little interest in adding two additional playoff teams, a move which would entail two more games, meaning six contests the opening weekend of postseason.

A few head coaches, here for the assistant coaches symposium that runs parallel to the spring meetings, reiterated they favored more playoff teams. But it is the owners, and not the coaches, who cast the votes for their respective franchises.

At mid-morning, about the time the owners were shooting down the proposal, there was a fire alarm at the downtown hotel where the meetings were being held. The alarm, which precipitated a floor-by-floor inspection, essentially became a more burning issue for the owners than did the expanded playoff field.

While the expanded playoffs were discussed for approximately two hours, the issue in the end died a very quiet death, indeed.

"Look, we've got the best game," said Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney. "Why should we become like hockey, where the regular season is rendered (innocuous) because they have so many playoff teams? It ain't broken, so there's no need to fix it, right?"

Len Pasquarelli is a senior writer for ESPN.com.