No Consensus Reached by Competition Committee on NFL Replay Rules, Possible Changes
After two days of deliberation at the 2019 Combine over whether or not replay review within the league should be changed, the NFL competition committee was unable to come to a consensus on the issue, several members told ESPN.
The issue resurfaced this season after the controversial no-call during the NFC Championship game. The missed pass interference call contributed to the conversation, citing officials failure to call interference on Rams' Nickell Robey-Coleman in the fourth quarter as reason to reconsider.
The no-call came with under two minutes left in the game. The Rams went on to stun the New Orleans Saints 26–23 in overtime after the late blatant pass interference call against the Rams cornerback Nickell Robey-Coleman went uncalled. While the non-call was not reviewable, NFL senior vice president of officiating reportedly told Saints coach Sean Payton afterward that the penalty should have been issued.
The mistake prompted the NFL's competition committee to consider making pass interference calls reviewable. The league hasn't previously allowed subjective penalties like pass interference to be reviewed. They have rejected all plans in recent years that would expand replay by adding new categories of eligible plays or adding an official to each game's crew.
Neither idea has get received enough support to move to a full vote of owners–an a consensus on this year's discussion looks unlikely until at least the owners meetings in late March.
Giants owner John Mara, a member of the committee, said he is "skeptical" that the NFL will find enough votes to make any substantive changes to the current replay rules, per ESPN's Kevin Seifert.
Committee chairman Rich McKay said he expects several teams to propose "significant" changes to replay but indicated that the committee's discussions will likely center on smaller changes. McKay added that he understands the impetus for the renewed discussions but does not think the committee will reach a consensus anytime soon. The conversations, however, will continue until then.
"And also, I think you're going to have some people who have historically wanted to expand replay and want to use this moment to have that discussion, which I don't blame them for wanting to do," McKay said. "For any discussion about it, you have to go all the way through, meaning end to end, because there are so many complications to it, in the way it impacts the game, officiating, time of game, pace of game, all those things. We are going to do that."
The combine will begin on Friday, March 1 and conclude on Monday, March 4.
