Committee Looks to Modify Plans for Defensive Radio

INDIANAPOLIS, Feb. 21-- Members of the NFL's competition committee have begun discussions to tweak a proposal that, if ratified by the league's franchise owners, would make it more difficult for teams to use the sort of sign-stealing tactics that led to the New England Patriots being punished last fall.

The committee plans to recommend to owners next month at the annual league meeting that they approve a proposal by which one defensive player per team would be outfitted with a helmet radio receiver, connecting him to a coach on the sideline. That would put the defense on even footing with the offense, because quarterbacks already are connected to a coach via a wireless communication device. It also would eliminate the need for coaches to signal in defensive plays from the sideline and, thus, eliminate the possibility of those signals being stolen by an opponent.

The proposal has been narrowly rejected by the owners the past two offseasons, and the competition committee now is deliberating over how to modify it to try to address concerns about how to implement it when few defensive players remain on the field for an entire game. The proposal needs 24 votes among the 32 teams to be approved; it fell two votes shy of ratification last March.

"We're currently discussing modifying the proposal so we'll have a better chance of getting it in," said Tennessee Titans Coach Jeff Fisher, co-chairman of the committee.

Otherwise, the "Spygate" scandal apparently won't produce any rule changes this offseason. Fisher said the rules regulating videotaping practices already are clear. Atlanta Falcons President Rich McKay, the committee's other co-chairman, said, "I don't think there was anything else that could be done from a rules perspective."

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and league attorney Jeff Pash briefed members of the committee Thursday on the investigation of the videotaping incident involving the Patriots in the opening week of the just-completed season. They told committee members about the process that led Goodell to fine the Patriots and Coach Bill Belichick a total of $750,000 and strip a first-round draft pick from the team. They also explained Goodell's decision to destroy the six videotapes and notes handed over to the league by the Patriots in the investigation.

The league's investigation has been criticized by Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), but the members of the competition committee said they were satisfied by the explanation they received.

"From my perspective, that was a thorough, fair, efficient process with lots of integrity," Indianapolis Colts President Bill Polian said. "They arrived at a disciplinary action which the commissioner thought was appropriate and which met with previous precedent. . . . I think it's fair to say we were satisfied with the explanation [and] satisfied with what was done . . . and it's behind us."

Fisher said the committee won't recommend a rule change barring a coach from calling a last-second timeout from the sideline just before the ball is snapped on a field goal attempt.

Coaches used the ploy successfully several times during the season. But Fisher said he knew the maneuver would fall into disfavor once it backfired once or twice, as it did later in the season. It's too difficult, Fisher said, to find the proper wording of a rule to prohibit a timeout aimed at icing the opposing kicker while allowing one if, for example, a team has too many players on the field.

"We can't legislate when you can call timeouts and when you cannot call timeouts," Fisher said.

Committee members have begun discussions about a proposal to change the way the NFL seeds teams for the playoffs. The league is attempting to reduce the number of games at the end of the regular season that have no bearing on playoff seedings.

One proposal is to seed teams for the playoffs strictly by their records, with no consideration given to whether a club wins its division. Currently, the four division winners in each conference get the top four postseason seeds, and the two wild-card teams in each conference get the fifth and sixth seeds. It's not yet clear whether the competition committee will recommend such a change to the owners next month in Palm Beach, Fla.