NFL Pondering Replay's Return

After two weeks of well-publicized officiating gaffes, the NFL is considering a return to instant replay for this year's playoffs.

League spokesman Joe Browne confirmed Monday that if the owners approve, "a limited form of replay for use in the upcoming postseason is a possibility."

The new replay system would likely take the form used in preseason experiments -- with coaches give a limited number of challenges per game and referees making the final decision from monitors on the sideline.

But it also would be what Browne called "liberal," meaning that if a coach is out of challenges on a game-deciding play, he would be allowed an additional one.

That would apply to plays such as the one by the New York Jets' Vinny Testaverde with 20 seconds left against Seattle on Sunday. That play was called a touchdown, although replays showed Testaverde had come up short of the goal line.

A proposal for a new form of replay, which was in effect from 1986 to 1991, was voted down at an owners' meeting in March. It got "yes" votes from 21 of the 30 teams, two short of the three-fourths needed.

But Sunday's call, plus a questionable call that allowed New England to beat Buffalo a week ago and the botched coin flip in the Pittsburgh-Detroit game on Thanksgiving, have had a ripple effect around the league.

Buffalo's Ralph Wilson, who voted against replay in March, said he has changed his mind. And Browne said that calls to owners by commissioner Paul Tagliabue had convinced him that there were enough votes to approve the proposal

The "no" votes last March came from seven teams that have voted regularly against replay -- the New York Giants, Arizona, Buffalo, Cincinnati, Kansas City, Chicago and Tampa Bay. They were joined by San Diego and Oakland.

Tagliabue spent most of Monday discussing the problem with owners and league officials.

Tagliabue couldn't have missed Monday's New York newspapers, all three of which had a front-page picture of Testaverde lying on the round a foot short of the end zone. Still, the play was ruled a touchdown and the Jets beat Seattle, 32-31.

The call in the game's closing seconds kept the Jets tied with Miami in the AFC East and in effect knocked the Seahawks from playoff contention. It also had an impact on Wilson's Bills, Miami and New England, which are in a four-way scramble with the Jets in the AFC East.

The technology is in place because of the replay experiments during exhibition games. All that's needed is a phone vote by the owners. No timetable for that conference call has been set.

"There is one objective -- get the calls right," Jets coach Bill Parcells said Monday. "Not some of the calls, not the calls in the second half or the last quarter or only in the end zone. It's to get the calls right."

The system that has been tried in exhibitions involves giving coaches challenges on calls -- perhaps two a half or two a game -- with the referee making the final decision after viewing the play on a sideline monitor.

That would help end the objections to the old system, which used a replay official in a booth and was filled with endless challenges and endless delays, some lasting longer than five minutes.

The objections to the challenge system came mainly from the coaches, who have been split among a number of proposals. Some wonder what would happen in a situation such as the Seahawks-Jets game if a coach had exhausted his challenges before a game-turning play at the finish.

However, the proposal under study by the NFL is a liberal version that would allow a coach an additional challenge on just such a game-deciding play.

Few pretend that replay solves everything. Dan Rooney, president of the Steelers, said last week he thinks officials are overly managed already, leading to indecision.

Phil Luckett, the referee in the Seahawks-Jets game, said once head linesman Earnie Frantz signaled touchdown, as he did almost as soon as Testaverde hit the ground, the debate was over.

"Because he had signaled a touchdown, so far as we're concerned it's over," Luckett said.

But NFL rules specify that if another official disagrees with the call, the referee can reverse it. On Sunday night in Minnesota, referee Bob McElwee reversed himself after he ruled a fumble and other officials said Steve Stentstrom's knee had hit before the ball came out.

The difference might be that Luckett, who is well-regarded by coaches and players, is in his second year as a crew chief and his eighth as an NFL official. McElwee is in his 23rd year as an official, most as a referee.

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