| |
Sport Sections |
|
|
| | |||
| Wednesday, March 28 Associated Press | |||
PALM DESERT, Calif. – The annual debate over instant replay
in the NFL is over for at least three years.
The league voted Wednesday to extend the current replay system
through the end of the 2003 season. One reason given: the league
could make adjustments to replay without having to worry about the
system being approved.
"The purpose of this was to allow the system to be looked at,
analyzed and potentially improved," said Rich McKay, general
manager of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and co-chairman of the
competition committee.
The vote to extend replay for three years was 25-5 with one
abstention and means that next year will mark the first time since
1986 that it has not been debated at the annual meetings. It was
approved in 1986, voted out in 1991 and instituted with a new
system two years ago after a season of egregious and
well-publicized officiating errors.
The system will continue to be the same used for the past two
years – coaches get two challenges with a replay official having
the right to stop the game for reviews in the last two minutes of
each half. The referee on the field will then review the play on a
monitor and make the final decisions.
The dissenters on replay were the New York Jets, Buffalo,
Arizona, Cincinnati and Kansas City, with Indianapolis abstaining.
If the extension had failed to get the 24 votes needed – 75 percent
– the league would have voted on extending it for one year, a
measure that almost surely would have passed.
The league also recognized publicly for the first time the
problems with the salary cap system that have resulted in the
release of many still-productive veterans. Most end up signing for
low salaries with incentives, often just before training camps
open.
"The cap is going up 10 percent a year, but some of the players
are getting 40 percent raises," commissioner Paul Tagliabue said,
citing linebacker Levon Kirkland, the former All-Pro linebacker
released by Pittsburgh this spring because of a huge cap number.
"It was unfortunate," Tagliabue said, who said the long-term
solution might be to provide money outside the cap to pay veterans.
"The team really wanted to keep him and he didn't understand why
they had to let them go when he wanted to continue to play."
Among other things taken up on the final day of the meetings:
 Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories | ALSO SEE
The top seven plans for NFL realignmentTrading places: NFL realignment plan nearly set Rules committee approves crackdown on taunting Clayton: No Fun League needs to lighten up Competition committee will push owners to keep instant replay Clayton: Revealing the plan for realignment | ||