WASHINGTON — The owners of NFL teams were gathering in Palm Beach, Fla., Sunday for what promises to be a busy three days at the annual league meeting that begins today. The owners will get a chance to respond to commissioner Roger Goodell’s proposed crackdown on cheating, and they’ll vote on a set of recommended rule changes and intensify discussions about the approach they’ll take toward negotiations that could produce a labor confrontation with the players’ union.
The meeting officially begins this morning with an address by Goodell, whose remarks are likely to focus on what’s virtually certain to be the leading topic of conversation: the measures proposed in response to the videotaping scandal involving the New England Patriots last fall.
Those measures include unannounced inspections by league officials of teams’ locker rooms, stadium press boxes and in-game communication equipment; a lowering of the standard of proof necessary for discipline to be imposed for infractions; and annual certifications by clubs that they comply with all rules and report all violations. Goodell outlined his plans in a memo this month to the competition committee, which has endorsed the measures.
“We are determined to make sure our game is clean and competitively fair,” Ray Anderson, the NFL’s executive vice president of football operations.
Goodell is empowered to enact several proposals without owners’ approval. But he is seeking input, just as he did before toughening the league’s policy on player conduct last year. Several owners have said they doubt that Goodell will receive much, if any, opposition to enacting any measure he deems necessary to preserve the sport’s integrity.
Goodell and the competition committee are endorsing a proposal to equip one defensive player per team with a wireless communication device in his helmet connecting him to a coach on the sideline during games. The proposal would eliminate the need for the hand signals for defensive plays that were taped by the Patriots. The coach-to-defense proposal must be ratified by at least 24 of the 32 teams and narrowly missed approval in each of the last two years.
In response to Goodell’s memo, the competition committee also has proposed a rule that would create a five- to seven-day window before the opening of the free agent market each year in which players eligible for free agency could negotiate with all teams. Under the existing rule, free agents can negotiate only with their current teams prior to the opening of free agency. But that rule is widely ignored, and league officials want to create an anti-tampering provision that they will be able to enforce.
There’s likely to be a vote on the competition committee’s reseeding proposal that would make wild-card playoff teams eligible for the third and fourth postseason seeds in each conference. Currently, the top four playoff seeds in each conference are reserved for division winners. Under the proposal, which needs 24 votes for ratification, division winners would get the top two seeds but the third through sixth seeds would go by record, with division winners getting the tie-breaking edge. The proposal is intended to reduce the number of late regular-season games that have no bearing on playoff seedings.
Also up for votes at this meeting are proposals by the competition committee to make most field goal attempts subject to instant replay review; to eliminate the “forceout” rule on catches, requiring a receiver to get two feet in bounds for a legal catch even if he’s shoved by a defender; to eliminate the five-yard version of the facemask penalty; and to allow the team that wins the coin toss to defer and receive the second-half kickoff if it chooses. The Kansas City Chiefs have proposed a rule prohibiting a player’s hair from covering his name or number.
The league is scheduled to announce its featured games on the opening weekend of next season, and the owners could discuss possible down-the-road measures for shortening the preseason and perhaps adding a week to the regular season.
There also will be plenty of conversation about the labor situation. The current labor deal between the owners and players’ union allows either side to reopen negotiations in November. Union chief Gene Upshaw has said he expects the owners to exercise that clause, setting the stage for a possible work stoppage in 2011. The tough talk already has begun, with Upshaw vowing that players won’t accept a new deal less favorable than the one completed in March 2006.
“This is it,” Upshaw said in a recent telephone interview. “This is the deal they made. The next deal they make is not going to be less.”
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