NFL owners table onside kick alternative proposal

NFL owners have tabled a proposal for an alternative to onside kick with a fourth-and-15 play and approved testing expanded use of video replay in preseason to aid in officiating.

On a conference call Thursday, 32 owners also increased number of players who may be designated for return from injured list during a season from two to three.

Also passed was making permanent expansion of automatic replay reviews to include scoring plays and turvers negated by a foul, and any successful or unsuccessful extra points.

competition committee's recommendation to expand defenseless player protection to a kickoff or punt returner who is in possession of ball but has t h time to avoid or ward off contact of an opponent also was approved. So was preventing teams from manipulating game clock by committing multiple de-ball fouls while clock is running — an issue that came up several times in 2019, including during postseason.

Using video replay for pass interference calls was dropped after a one-year experiment that led to more uncertainty than clarity. Many people in league cited presence of too much subjectivity in reviews.

Tabled was a proposal to have a booth judge serve as an eighth official on each crew and call for reviews on certain plays. But league will experiment with ditional review options during preseason, which is scheduled to begin on Aug. 6 with Pro Football Hall of Fame game between Pittsburgh and Dallas.

preseason schedule, of course, is an uncertainty — as is NFL's regular-season — because of coronavirus pandemic. But league has stated it plans to play everything as scheduled while making contingency plans that could include fans at games, moving or delaying games.