No more force out rule
On Dec. 3 of last year, Cleveland’s Kellen Winslow made a game-ending 37-yard grab against Arizona in the end zone on which he was shoved out of bounds before he got both feet down. No touchdown, Cardinals win, Browns ultimately miss the playoffs.

The play should have been a completion and a touchdown because Winslow was forced out. Well, we can strike "force out" from the NFL vernacular. From now on, you either get both feet down or you don’t. Doesn’t matter if you were shoved or not.

You cannot, however, hoist and carry a receiver off the field. Apparently, you can shove a guy in the air out of bounds and have it be incomplete but you can't lug him out of bounds. This one’s going to need some fine-tuning.

Coach-to-defense communication
The league will also take another run at getting the coach-to-defense communication passed. This is the third time around for the proposal but now it’s been tweaked to allow for two defenders to have the speaker in a helmet.

"Those two helmets cannot be on the field at the same time, so we would envision that the second player's helmet would be put on the sideline," said McKay. "And in the event the first player came out of the game with an injury or for some other reason, that player would switch helmets, be able to wear that helmet in the game and receive the communication.  At no time can those two players be in the game at the same time with the communication devices in their helmets."

This, of course, would eliminate the need for defensive signals and the temptation for teams to try and decode them.

"I think maybe because of the focus that has been on the situation in New England earlier this year (it has a better chance to pass)," said McKay. "But also because I think that people think the time has come for it.  I thought last year they thought that; we just fell two votes short."

The owners will also address …

A) Whether to include field goals as reviewable plays thanks to the weirdness that occurred in the Browns-Ravens game last year when a field goal hit a TV camera positioned behind the crossbar then bounced back into the end zone. The one caveat – kicks over the top of the upright would not be reviewable.

"You can't review it if it goes over the top of both uprights because we think we do not have the camera angles to support a good picture there," said McKay.

B) Allowing the team that wins the coin toss at the start of the game to "defer" until the start of the second half. In other words, if the rule passes, the team that wins the toss will be allowed to choose whether to kick off, receive or let the team that lost the toss make the decision at the start of the game. Currently, the team that wins the toss can only choose to kick or receive and the team that loses the toss automatically gets to make the choice at halftime.

C) Whether to do away with the 5-yard penalty for an inadvertent face mask and just let the 15-yarder do the disciplining for guys who do the deed on purpose. The NCAA is making that change in 2008.

D) Whether owners, GMs, presidents and coaches will be made to annually certify compliance with all rules and policies. This will prevent the Sgt. Schultz, "I know nothing!" defense employed by Patriots owner Robert Kraft when he learned of his head coach’s videotaping practices.

NFL honcho Ray Anderson said in regards to this move: "The main thing is accountability from top to bottom in protecting integrity and maintaining the confidence among our fans.  That's what we're looking to do in terms of integrity and fair competition moving forward." 

And finally ...
High on the league's priority list is ensuring that the conferences are competitive and the games are entertaining. It was pointed out on the conference call that, head-to-head, the conferences split the 64 games they played in 2007. Meanwhile, the 43.4 points per game were the highest since 1983, the 428 combined passing yards per game was the second highest in history and the combined yards per game was the 10th highest in league history.

Also, touchdowns per game were up (4.85), penalties per game were down (13.45 assessed) and average length of game went down to 3:02:59.

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