PHOENIX — Pass interference, whether flagged or not, can be challenged by coaches and reviewed by officials next season.
NFL team owners voted Tuesday on a one-year trial basis to include those often-controversial penalties in the officiating replay review system.
Coaches still will have two challenges per game, and in the final two minutes of a half or fourth quarter or for all of overtime, the replay official can order a review of offensive or defensive pass interference.
The major change — owners traditionally have been highly reluctant to include any penalties in the replay process — stems from an egregious missed call in the NFC championship game that likely led to the Rams making the Super Bowl and the Saints falling short.
“I told the owners we need to get to a place, and I felt strongly we should have OPI and DPI and that we should be able to throw flags (that were not thrown on the field,” Commissioner Roger Goodell said. “Everyone in there finally got to understand through a long process and a lot of discussion, everyone wanted to get it right. Some had to remove themselves from long-shared views.”
The competition committee, which recommends rules changes to the ownership, had been split 4-4 on adding interference penalties, particularly non-flagged ones, to replay. But they tweaked the proposal, and it remains part of the overall replay system, which was a critical component.
Falcons President Rich McKay, chairman of the competition committee, said the analytics also played a role in the rules change. Of the 50 most incorrect on-field calls as determined by officiating director Al Riveron and his staff that were impactful, half of them were for defensive pass interference.
“We felt this was a place to start,” McKay added. “There was a lot of discussion and definitely a block of people on the committee and in membership concerned about the ability to put a flag on. We got more comfortable as we worked it out that it would be captured in the replay system.”
• NFL owners voted down a proposal to replace the onside kick with one play from scrimmage, and tabled a suggestion to require each team to have one possession in overtime regardless of what happened on the first series of the extra period.
The owners vetoed the idea of a one-year trial of a fourth-and-15 play from the offense’s 35-yard line to replace the onside kick, considered one of the game’s more dangerous plays. The powerful competition committee recommended the play by a vote of 7-1, but the owners were not swayed.
The overtime change is championed by several clubs after the AFC championship game in January — and the 2017 Super Bowl — ended with a Patriots touchdown without the opponent getting the ball. New England won the coin toss both times.
Currently, the format is a touchdown on the opening possession of OT ends the game, but a field goal allows the other team a series with the ball. If that team also kicks a field goal, the game continues.
Owners will next take up the overtime topic at their May meeting.
BILLS: A person with direct knowledge of Buffalo’s plans confirmed to The Associated Press that running back Chris Ivory has been informed he will be released by the team.
The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because the Bills have not announced their plans. ESPN.com first reported the news.
Ivory had one year left on his contract and was scheduled to make a base salary of $1.5 million.
The 31-year-old Ivory becomes the odd-man out after Buffalo signed veteran running back Frank Gore two weeks ago to work behind starter LeSean McCoy.
Ivory had 385 yards rushing and a touchdown and added 205 yards receiving in 13 games during his first season with Buffalo last year.
RAIDERS: Oakland signed free-agent quarterback Landry Jones.
The move on Tuesday gives the Raiders another potential backup behind starter Derek Carr. Oakland signed Mike Glennon earlier in free agency and also has Nathan Peterman on the roster.
Jones was originally a fourth-round pick by Pittsburgh in 2013. He has played 18 games with five starts in his career, completing 108 of 169 passes for 1,310 yards, eight TDs, seven interceptions and an 86.2 passer rating.
• Former Oakland Raiders running back and AFL all-time leading rusher Clem Daniels has died at age 83.
The team announced Daniels’ death late Monday night but did not give a cause.
Daniels played nine seasons of pro football starting with the Dallas Texans of the AFL in 1960. He spent his next seven seasons with the Raiders where he had his greatest success before finishing his career with the San Francisco 49ers in the NFL in 1968.
SAINTS: General Manager Mickey Loomis said 2018 Pro Bowl tight end Jared Cook has agreed to the terms of a free-agent contract.
The 6-foot-5, 254-pound Cook is a 10-year veteran coming off his best season. He caught 68 passes for 896 yards and six touchdowns with Oakland last season and was named to the Pro Bowl for the first time.
Tight ends accounted for relatively modest production in the Saints’ eighth-ranked offense last season. Three tight ends – Ben Watson, Josh Hill and Dan Arnold – combined for 63 catches for 735 yards and four touchdowns. And Watson, who led the position group with 35 catches for 400 yards and two TDs, has retired.
Cook, who turns 32 next month, was a third-round draft choice out of South Carolina in 2009 and was acquired by Tennessee on a draft-day trade with New England.
HELMETS: The NFL has awarded nearly a quarter-million dollars to two companies seeking to enhance protection provided by helmets.
Windpact, founded by former NFL cornerback Shawn Springs, is receiving $148,820 to tailor its padding technology, called Crash Cloud, for use in one Schutt’s helmets.
Auxadyne was awarded $86,688 to advance its XPF material, an energy absorber that becomes more dense upon impact. The company will use this unique material, the only commercially available of its kind, to create a football helmet padding system that can reduce the impact to an athlete’s head.
The awards were presented as part of the league’s HeadHealthTECH Challenge series. The NFL has committed to a $60 million effort to improve the understanding of how head injuries occur in the sport, and to create incentives for helmet manufacturers, businesses, entrepreneurs, universities and others to develop and commercialize new and improved protective equipment.
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