NFL: Instant Replay May Return

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

January 29, 1999 / 4:15 PM EST / CBS Sportsline

NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue expressed optimism that instant replay will be approved for the 1999 season and declared the expansion battle between Houston and Los Angeles a "tight competition" in his Super Bowl address Friday.

The most surprising development came when Tagliabue announced Edward DeBartolo Jr. would not be allowed to regain ownership of the San Francisco 49ers "at least through the 1999 season."

It was believed DeBartolo was on his way back to operating the Niners after former coach Bill Walsh was hired as general manager two weeks ago, but Tagliabue said DeBartolo's sister, Denise DeBartolo-York, will continue to run the team.

DeBartolo pleaded guilty to extortion in October and relinquished ownership control of the 49ers.

"Eddie remains divorced from operating control of the 49ers," Tagliabue said. "There is a perception than an NFL owner engaged in serious conduct. You just can't accept that conduct without consequences."

After a season that featured numerous controversial calls, league sentiment appeared to be leaning toward the return of replay to help officials. Tagliabue officially supported the implementation of a replay system in his address Friday.

"I'm optimistic, but nothing in the NFL is a certainty," Tagliabue said of the possible return of replay. "We've spent a lot of time in the past year looking at the technology. In our office, there's a growing recognition that we can take that technology and use it to our advantage."

League owners are expected to reinstitute replay, which was voted out in 1991, at the March meetings in Phoenix. Twenty-four of the 31 owners are needed for approval.

Three ownership groups -- two from Los Angeles and one from Houston -- each presented their cases Thursday before the league's expansion and stadium committees for the right to secure the NFL's 32nd franchise.

Tagliabue said the committees were impressed by all three proposals and might make a recommendation by March.

"This a tight competition," Tagliabue said. "We want to be strong in the big markets but we also know what football is in Texas on all levels."

Los Angeles has been without a franchise since the Raiders returned to Oakland and the Rams bolted for St. Louis in 1995. Houston lost its team when the Oilers -- now the Titans -- left for Tennessee in 1997.

The winner likely will have to dole out more than $750 million for the franchise.

The new Cleveland Browns, scheduled to begin play in 1999, paid a $530 million fee to become the league's 31st team.

The committee on Thursday also discussed the recent sale of the Washington Redskins for $800 million to a group headed by Howard Milstein and Daniel Schnyder. A full ownership meeting will be held Feb. 16 in Atlanta and a vote on the sale could come at the March meetings.