After years of experimentation and limited approval, instant replay is about to become permanent for NFL games, and coaches could get a third challenge if their first two prove correct.
For the first time since replay was involved in officiating in 1985, owners will vote next week on a proposal to keep the system without a sunset provision. The current three-year approval has expired. In previous years, it was approved on a one-year basis.
The league’s Competition Committee voted unanimously to recommend the permanent vote. Usually, the committee is less aggressive if it senses such a change cannot garner the required three-fourths majority vote.
Rich McKay, Atlanta Falcons general manager and co-chair of the committee, said Wednesday the decision to grant a third coach’s challenge after two successful challenges still limits the mechanism to the desired big-play decisions.
Tennessee Titans coach Jeff Fisher, the committee’s other co-chair, had lobbied for adding a challenge for every correct challenge. Under the proposal, a coach could not get a fourth challenge even if all three overturned decisions by officials.
McKay also said the committee will recommend a specific 15-yard penalty for excessive player celebrations involving two or more players or props such as cell phones or pens. Although such behavior can be flagged under broader “unsportsmanlike conduct” rules, the league has chosen to curb the activity through fines.
“Fines have not worked as effectively as we would have liked,” McKay said. “Fines were up three-fold last year. [Celebrations] have become more pre-planned than ever.”
