Meetings Leave Us Little to Celebrate

PALM DESERT — There are special moments frozen in time for almost everyone, a person never forgetting where he was when President Kennedy was shot or what he was doing when hearing that Georgia Frontiere was free again after seven marriages.

And now March 12, 3:51 p.m., Springs Rooms J-to-L at the Marriott’s Desert Springs Resort: The NFL no longer will allow a player to remove his helmet and mug for the cameras.

There will be no reason now for Emmitt Smith to push his way into the end zone, no call for Deion Sanders to try to go the distance with an interception, no more TV highlights of Brett Favre ripping his helmet off in a Super Bowl after firing a long touchdown pass to Andre Rison.

Instead of prison without the opportunity for parole, the NFL lords of discipline demanded a more stringent deterrent to such outlandish displays of ego: a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.

The “act-like-you’ve-scored-before” measure passed, 23-7, the negative votes coming obviously from those concerned that Dallas coach--sorry, Dallas owner--Jerry Jones will now be the only one left to mug for the cameras without fear of retribution.

As for other trivial matters at this week’s annual owners’ meetings such as maintaining the integrity of the game by employing instant replay via the use of modern technology to compensate for poor officiating, that failed.

There will be no instant replay for the sixth-consecutive year primarily because NFL coaches refused to surrender their timeouts.

The Arizona Cardinals, Buffalo Bills, Chicago Bears, Cincinnati Bengals, Dallas Cowboys, Kansas City Chiefs, New York Jets, New York Giants, Oakland Raiders and Tampa Bay Buccaneers rejected an instant-replay proposal that would have allowed each team two challenges per game, while costing them timeouts--right or wrong in their challenge.

The previous replay system, in effect from 1986 to 1991, had been directed by a league official sitting in the press box and did not involve the use of timeouts. Under the proposed plan, coaches would have tossed a red flag on the field stopping play, which would have required the referee to consult a TV monitor on the sideline for replay of a questioned call.

A majority of NFL teams--20--voted in favor of replay, but 23 votes were required to make it law, and so such teams as the Green Bay Packers, who beat the San Francisco 49ers a year ago during the regular season because an official blew a call, will undoubtedly be favored again to win it all.

“I didn’t want to change the game,” Raider owner Al Davis said. “We have three timeouts in the first half, we have three timeouts in the second half and we’ve had it for eternity. I don’t want to have instant replay compromising it.”

There was fear among NFL coaches that some might use their challenges to stop the clock late in the game and disrupt the opposition or take advantage of San Francisco’s new coach, Steve Mariucci. Some also were concerned about having to save a timeout until the very end, just in case they had to make a challenge.

There was also concern about the length of games, which averaged 3 hours 4 minutes last season. The average stoppage of play in last year’s preseason experiment of instant replay was 2:17.

The proposal to tie timeouts to the challenges was made to cut down on the use of instant replay. In presenting the streamlined version of instant replay, the NFL’s competition committee expected coaches to employ their challenges sparingly thereby not disrupting the game.

“I think the only way you’re going to see it seriously considered soon is if something happens to a team during the season,” said Green Bay Coach Mike Holmgren, and now isn’t that funny.

After rejecting instant replay the owners’ meetings adjourned.

However, at 8:30 this morning, after a good night’s sleep and several strong cups of coffee, the media will have to listen to NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue recap what happened here the last few days.

Not exactly a special moment frozen in time.