NFL Meetings : Instant Replay, It Seems, Is Now on Its Way Out

After a two-year tryout, three things can be said about instant-replay officiating in the National Football League:

--It was more successful during the 1987 season than it had been the year before. There were more corrections and fewer errors.

--It has been endorsed overwhelmingly by NFL fans. Polls show 65% to 70% in favor.

--It has been approved by a solid majority of NFL coaches and owners.

Nevertheless, most club executives and league officials expect instant replay to be voted out at the NFL’s annual convention, which begins today at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix.

In a country where the majority rules, the NFL is a minority-rules league. Any 8 of the 28 owners can block almost anything, and those opposed to instant replay are believed to have lined up at least eight votes.

They had seven last year, identified by Joe Browne, the league’s director of communications, as Kansas City, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, New England and both New York teams.

And San Diego makes eight. New Orleans is also reportedly against.

“So far, instant replay (officiating) has lacked consistency,” said Charger General Manager Steve Ortmayer.

Consistency, however, has never been the real objective. It’s considered too difficult to get.

Dallas President Tex Schramm, who strongly favors the use of instant replay, said: “The objective is to correct the big (officiating) mistake that everyone else in America sees.”

There were 57 such corrections last year, according to Art McNally, the NFL’s supervisor of officials. A year earlier, there were only 38 reversals. In each of the last two playoff seasons, three calls were reversed.

Moreover, communication between field officials and those upstairs has improved.

“No incorrect call (in 1987) was allowed to stand on the field due to lack of communication,” Browne said.

There will be a fight over it on the convention floor, but one source said: “The obstructionists will be hard to beat.”

Otherwise this week, the pro football folks will vote on some imaginative rules changes.

One proposal would end the time-consuming practice of re-kicking when there’s a violation by a punting or kickoff team. For instance, instead of a re-kick when an illegal man is downfield--or when the kicking team is offside--the receiving team would get 10 yards before its next offensive play. For a personal foul, it would get 15 yards.

Another proposal would abolish the five-yard penalty for running into the kicker. This would put kickers in the same class with quarterbacks, who are run into all the time. The 15-yard penalty for roughing the kicker would remain, matching the roughing-the-passer penalty.

A suggestion that has been called insane by some would award the defensive team 1 point for scoring a touchdown on an extra-point play by returning a fumble, interception or blocked kick from one end zone to the other.

In a typical instance, a team that had marched 80 yards to get six points--or even 99 yards--would lose a point on the next play if its conversion try were returned by the other side for a touchdown. And, conceivably, it could lose the game, say, 22-21.

NFL Notes

In other business, Commissioner Pete Rozelle will preside as the owners vote on moving the Cardinals from St. Louis to Phoenix. Owner Bill Bidwill needs the help of 21 friendly peers to get out of town. Unless Al Davis trades for the Cardinals in the meantime, they will have the votes. . . . The league will also take on the case of the troubled New England Patriots, possibly in executive session today. . . . Most NFL losers are very angry with two winners, Edward J. DeBartolo Jr. of San Francisco and Patrick D. Bowlen of Denver, for what they call illegal bonuses to 49er and Bronco players last season. They will try to take action against the winners this week. At the least, some of them want to improve Rozelle’s disciplinary authority. NFL bylaws kept him from fining either DeBartolo or Bowlen more than $50,000. . . . Expansion isn’t on the agenda this time, but international games are. The NFL will play two exhibitions on foreign fields this summer, Minnesota meeting Chicago in Sweden Aug. 12 and the other game to be arranged during the convention.