Palm Desert, Calif. — The annual debate over instant replay in the NFL is over for at least three years.
The league voted Wednesday to extend the current replay system through the end of the 2003 season. One reason given: the league could make adjustments to replay without having to worry about the system being approved.
The vote to extend replay for three years was 25-5 with one abstention and means that next year will mark the first time since 1986 that it has not been debated at the annual meetings. It was approved in 1986, voted out in 1991 and instituted with a new system two years ago after a season of egregious and well-publicized officiating errors.
The system will continue to be the same used for the past two years coaches get two challenges with a replay official having the right to stop the game for reviews in the last two minutes of each half. The referee on the field will then review the play on a monitor and make the final decisions.
The dissenters on replay were the New York Jets, Buffalo, Arizona, Cincinnati and Kansas City, with Indianapolis abstaining. If the extension had failed to get the 24 votes needed 75 percent the league would have voted on extending it for one year, a measure that almost surely would have passed.
The teams voted to ban bandannas and stocking caps but will allow skullcaps with the team colors and logos, which could become the next hot marketing item.
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