Momentous Change Will Mark NFL Annual Meetings – FOXSports.com

PHOENIX Usually, the media covering the annual NFL meetings, aSunday-to-Wednesdayaffair, is into the story-manufacturing phase by aboutMonday. No such chance this week at the Arizona Biltmore, where a medium black coffee runs you $4.07. The slate of stuff:

Sundaynight:NFL announces hire of a new chief medical officer, Dr. Allen Sills of Vanderbilt University. Sills, a neurologist and the founder of the Vanderbilt Sports Concussion Center, presumably will focus significantly on head trauma and how much more the league can do to limit the amount of it in a violent game.

Monday:Owners are slated to vote on the Raiders proposed move to Las Vegas. One source close to the process saidSundayit would be a surprise if the move wasnt approved, and if you read commissioner Roger GoodellsFridaynight letter to the mayor of Oakland, I might raise surprise to shock.If it happens, this would end a 15-month period of franchise shifts, with the Rams, Chargers and Raiders moving to Los Angeles, Los Angeles and Las Vegas since the start of 2016.

Tuesday:Houston coach Bill OBrien and Denver coach Vance Joseph, at annual AFC coaches breakfast, find new and exciting ways to no-comment questions on their interest in acquiring in-limbo Dallas quarterback Tony Romo.

Tuesday:Dallas owner Jerry Jones slated to meet the press for first official comments on Romo. Expect news, though I dont know of what variety.

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Tuesday:Owners, coaches, GMs to be briefed on the leagues time-saving proposals, including the one that changes the game the most: refs no longer going under the hood on replay but rather watching on a sideline tabletand NFL VP of Officiating Dean Blandino for the first time retaining final authority on all replay rulings.

Wednesday:NFC coaches breakfast. Some new/cherubic facesKyle Shanahan and Sean McVaysidling up to the omelet station at the Biltmore, and surely some Kirk Cousins talk with Washington coach Jay Gruden.

Wednesday:Owners vote on Competition Committee proposals. (The vote could be squeezed into Tuesday.) Expect the Blandino final-say proposal to pass.The competition committee was unanimous on this,Goodell said this week on my podcast. I think that holds a lot of sway in the room.

Wednesday, early afternoon:Big black SUVs line up in the driveway of the Biltmore for the annual Owners Race to the Airport.

Now for a little bit of depth on a few of those stories.

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I couldnt find many (one, actually) club officials or owners Sundaywho didnt think the Raiders move would be approved. The one was an AFC team official whose owner might vote against it simply because the owner thinks abandoning a rising team in Americas sixth-largest marketwith some evidence that the revived Raiders could overtake the swooning Niners in the market, particularly with the 49ers playing 50 minutes to the south in Santa Clara nowfor the 40th-largest market, Las Vegas. Obviously, Vegas has some unique aspects to it. But this would be the second rabid market in California in 2017 to lose a team for either a laissez-faire place (the Chargers leaving San Diego for Los Angeles) or a mystery place (the Raiders jumping from Oakland to Nevada).

It is painful all the way around, commissioner Roger Goodell told meThursdayin New York. The first thing you think about is the fans. It's disappointment that we weren't able to get to a successful conclusionI said that when the Chargers moved. We worked tirelessly to try to get an outcome that would allow the Chargers to stay there. We didn't get there, so I am disappointed in that. The same would be true if that is the case with the Raiders.

We have sought to get stability for the Raiders for several years. This goes back several decades back into the early eighties and probably even into the seventies. We really want to figure out a way to make sure that all 32 teams have that stability and a stadium is a big component of that. When we don't get that done in our current market, it is a failure, a collective responsibility on all of usus, the community, the team, and that is disappointing to us.

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Goodell clearly didnt want to say its over to me. But its over.On Fridaynight, he sent a letter to Oakland mayor Libby Schaaf making it clear that Oaklands last-ditch efforts to save the franchise were failing. Despite all of these efforts, ours and yours, we have not yet identified a viable solution,Goodell wrote. It is disappointing to me and our clubs to have come to that conclusion. On Sunday, Goodell told Sal Paolantonio he felt the owners will have a positive vote for the Raiders, which can mean only one thing.

So Mark Davis appears to be following in the footsteps of his father. The late Al Davis spent 22 seasons in Oakland and couldnt get a stadium deal done to his satisfaction. So he moved to Los Angeles in 1982; the Raiders stayed there till moving back in 1995. The Raiders, again, have spent 22 seasons in their second Oakland life, couldnt get a stadium deal done to their satisfaction, and now the family heir will move the team south again. Southeast, actually.

For years the NFL treatedanythingin Las Vegas like it was poison. Two years ago, even, the league made Tony Romo cancel a fantasy football convention because it was to be held at a Las Vegas convention center that was on the same grounds as a casino. Now the league is poised to vote to put one of its 32 crown jewels, and one of its most storied franchises, in that same city.

On Thursday, I asked Goodell: Why isn't the league put off by being in a place where there is legalized gambling?

We are not changing our position as it relates to legalized sports gambling,Goodell said. We still dont think it is a positive thing. We want to make sure that the integrity of our game is the primary concern and we do everything possible to protect that. And that people are watching it for the outcome, and they know that it is not being influenced by any outside influences. We are very determined to continue that, and we will; that's a first priority for us.

I think also you have to realize the changes that are evolving in society on gambling. Second: I think Las Vegas has evolved as a city. Its not just a singular industry. While it is still dominated by that [the gambling industry], there is a lot of entertainment going there, including political conventions. Our leaders in government are all going there. You see it a lot of different ways where this city has become much more diverse as far as the industry and the events it is attracting. It is really an entertainment city now, much more broadly than it would have been thought even a decade ago, much less two or three decades ago. In our analysis, we've been able to look at Vegas and it is actually one of the fastest growing cities in the country. We project by 2037 that it will be the same size as Oakland. It isn't now, but it is continuing to grow rapidly.

The population of Oakland proper really isnt the issue; its the entire market. The sprawling San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose area had an estimated population of 8.71 million in 2015, about four times the population of the extended Vegas market. City size, really, isnt that significant. Its market size that matters.

Regarding gambling: Its understandable in an era of dried-up public funding that the leagues going to try to find a way to make its gambling rules work when Nevada politicians promised $750 million in public money toward a $1.7-billion domed stadium in Las Vegas. But the NFL will now face an interesting new problem. Now, instead of players in most NFL cities having a casino or two within driving distance, players on the Las Vegas Raiders could go out at night and choose from 76 casinosin Las Vegas alone,according to Vegasclick.com. Imagine being the security officials for the Raiders, and the NFL, in Vegas now.

NFL people assume Raider fans will follow the franchiseespecially if it keeps rising. I dont doubt fans will support a winner. But Las Vegas is a mystery, and everyone knows it. The Black Hole was filled, even in the teams decade-long awful period just finished. Will the transients in Vegas, and those who come to gamble, stay for aSundayafternoon football game? Will the Raider season-ticket-holders from California follow the team to Nevada? No one knows.

By the end of the day today, the NFL likely will have traded fervor in two California cities for shiny stadiums in Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Add in the Rams, and these three transient franchises, in the past seven seasons, have combined to win zero division titles and one playoff game. Theyd better just win, baby, or the honeymoons in shiny new place wont last long.

THE RAIDERS ROAD TO RELOCATION IS ALL CLEAR: Albert Breer on how and why the NFL and Vegas have gotten to this point

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In the 2014 playoffs, Dallas receiver Dez Bryant was ruled to have caught a crucial fourth-down, fourth-quarter pass with Dallas trailing Green Bay 26-20. The Packers challenged, and ref Gene Steratore went under the hood on the sidelines to view replays, and consulted with the New York officiating command center, run by vice president of officiating Dean Blandino. But ultimately it was Steratores call.

Steratore overturned the call. Steratore announced to the crowd in Texas, and to America, that the pass was incomplete. Steratore explained why. And after the game, Steratore issued a statement to a pool reporter further explaining the call.

If the NFL has its way (likely it will), and owners vote this week for new mechanics on replay reviewsand for Blandino to have the final authority on replay callsthink how that scenario will change:

The ref on the field wont walk up to 40 yards to a hooded monitor next to the stands. He will walk several yards to the nearest sideline, and a replay technician will bring him a tablet and headset, and hell watch replays and discuss the outcome with Blandino or his lieutenant, Al Riveron, at the command center in New York.

The ref will consult, not make the final call.

Blandino, the decider-in-chief, will be the one getting the grief on the overturn, not the ref who made the call and took responsibility in the stadium.

Between meetings at the Biltmore lateSundayafternoon, Blandino, the career office guy, swore he didnt think the likely vote to give him replay power would be much of a change. (How likely? The influential Competition Committee endorses it unanimously.)

I really dont see it as a major difference compared to what weve been doing,Blandino said Other than New York having the final say, weve been doing this for three years. Its been a collaborative effort, with the ref giving input. Ultimately, well make the final decision, but it doesnt feel like any more pressure than what weve been handling since 2014. I dont think its going to change very much. The logistics of the referee having the hand-held device [the tablet] is different, but its more efficient.

In 2014, I spent part of an afternoon in the command center to see how the mechanics of the system in which New York consults with the ref on the field were working. It was intriguing, but it also was clear that there was some time to shave in the process. On a Giants-Cowboys review of a fumble/non-fumble play, Blandino was occupied and so Riveron took control of the play, watching the play at one of the replay stations in the Art McNally GameDay Central room. It was soon ruled the Giants player didnt fumble, but now there was the matter of ball placement. And instead of ref Jerome Boger taking charge of the situation, it was Riveron taking control, because hed seen more angles of the play by the time Boger got under the hood.Guys, said Riveron, lets get this straight. Listen up, listen up. Put the ball down at the 46-and-a-half and lets measure. The measurement confirmed the placement. End of review. Time: 3 minutes, 41 seconds. Waaaay too long. Later, Blandino told me: Lets get to the point, versus taking the scenic route.

It made sense to me that day that New York should make the call. By the time Boger went under the hood on the play in question, by my count, Riveron had already spent 20 seconds or so at the monitor looking at the fumble/non-fumble. On most replay reviews, thats enough to make a call. Its redundant for a referee to then look at one or more of the same plays that already show the result. Now, there are going to be some plays that are painstakingly close that the ref and Blandino or Riveron could discuss. But theyre not the majority. This is not only more efficient, but also smarter for the consistency of the calls.

Blandino said the only issue from the membership was something a bit conspiratorial. The concerns that Ive heard is whos in the room?Blandino said. Weve been very clear. Access to the room As an NFL employee, you get a key card. That key card gets you in the building and it gets you to your floor. It does not get you in Gameday Central. You have to have a working function. Theres a select group that has access to that room, and thats it. Everybody in there has a working function.

Id be surprised if this failed. Its a better way to run replay, and it still leaves the ref on the field with input in extenuating circumstances, or in the event that the decision is so close the eyes of the referee could sway the call. Either way, itd be a new way to run a game. A better way, I think. As one member of the Competition Committee told meSunday, this has been the aim of the system since the ref-command center combination was introduced in 2014, to have Blandino and his team be the final arbiters.

Now, regarding the time of game, Goodell has been known to call his staff while watching games at homeon Sunday. Occasionally, he rails about time wasters and the back-to-back commercial breaks used after some touchdowns. So he formed a working group last year of league employees to examine all time-sucks. The measures owners will vote on here are a result of those meetings and studies. For instance, when commercial breaks in a quarter have been exhausted and a touchdown is scored, a 40-second clock will be started after the extra point or two-point conversion is attempted. Once that 40 seconds expires, the ball will be handed to the kicker, and a 25-second clock will start. If the kicking team doesnt kick by the time the 25 seconds ticks off, a delay-of-game flag will be thrown. Formerly, there wasnt a rule about timing between PATs and the ensuing kickoff.

We have 156 plays in a game, said Goodell. We are not talking about changing that at all. What we are trying to do and what I believe we'll be successful in doing is making the game from an overall fan standpoint both in the stadium and at home more compelling. We won't judge ourselves simply on does the game go from3:07 to 3:02. What well judge ourselves on is did we make it more compelling by taking out some downtime?

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Also of note this week:

Credit John Madden when the NFL this week votes to abolish the field-goal or PAT play in which a defender leaps over the center to try to block the kick. (Exciting, I know, but risky.) The abolition of the play is expected to be approved. Madden, in retirement, is co-chair of the NFLs safety committee and chairs the NFL coaches subcommittee. Madden turns 81 on April 10. Hes still a mentor to Goodell and others on football and football-safety matters. When the subject of the kick-block-leaper came up, Madden told the Competition Committee: Why should we wait till somebody gets seriously hurt on a play like this before we do anything about it? Its got to be outlawed.

Buffalo and Seattle advanced a proposal to allow a challenge on any play during the game, without increasing the number of challenges. In a season when cutting time of game is of importance, that ones got no chance of passing.

Could a rule pass thatincentivizes a kickoff through the uprights? Possible. Washington proposed it, and the one worry is that a team like Denver, in high altitude where balls carry better, could have an edge for eight games a year. (Im serious. That is a concern.) Under the proposal, a kickoff through the uprights would result in ball placement at the 20-yard line instead of the 25 on first down. This could be close, but I would guess it would not pass.

Now heres one out of left field: Hall of Fame GM Bill Polian suggested to Goodell at the Super Bowl that the overtime be shortened from 15 minutes to 10. Goodell liked it (safety reasonsfewer plays), as did the Competition Committee. Its not a huge deal, but the two overtime games that ended in ties last year had 39 and 36 plays in the overtimes. Not a big deal, but if those two games had 26 and 24 plays, respectively, that would reduce the threat of injuries a bit.

Regarding the addition of the double-box on the telecasts: NBC has used this on NASCAR while cars are circling the track, and on the Ryder Cup. NFL Network actually, quietly, experimented with the double-box in Week 16 last year, doing a commercial on half the screen and showing a team timeout in Houston-Cincinnati on the other half of the screen. Id expect this to be used during some replay reviews in 2017, to see if the system works.

If the NFL is serious about limiting house ads on game telecasts, I know Id be all for it. On my podcast this week, I brought it up with Goodell, and he talked about wanting to make the drama the late-game focus, not the league or network promotions. He said, All of that is great. All of that is drama. Thats what were trying to get [networks and league merchandisers] to focus on, rather than seeing a promotion of, This is how you buy a jersey, or This is whats going to be on the network next week. And were going to address that.

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A short conversation with the Journalist of the Week, Foxs Jay Glazer, after he and his Fox crew broke the story of Tom Bradys stolen Super Bowl jersey being recovered in Mexico. Glazer later showed the video of Mauricio Ortega of MexicosLa Prensain and around the Patriots locker room, which implicated him in the theft:

MMQB: Tell me a moment that stunned you in the wake of the story.

Glazer:It is so amazing how [Ortega] had it down to a science. He was a professional, acting like he belonged in the locker room, being very calm, very natural. He never fidgeted, never got nervous. We gathered a lot of video on him, obviously. When I showed it to Danny Amendola and Julian Edelman [of the Patriots], who were training at my gym in LA, their reaction was incredible. It was like theyd been violated. This guy was in our locker room and he didnt belong! This is crazy!

MMQB: How did you narrow it down to this one guy?

Glazer:Seriously: just old-fashioned legwork from Fox, from the FBI, from Patriots security, NFL security, Mexican authorities. It is amazing. My bosses at FoxEric Shanks, who was huge through the whole process. He respected the NFL, and he respected the journalism that was being done. I remember being in his office when we realized it was this big figure in Mexican media, like if the editor ofSports Illustratedwent to the World Cup and stole jerseys out of locker rooms there. Our jaws dropped. Seriously, I cannot say enough about how hard the team at Fox worked to get the footage and to get the story right. Joel Santos, one of our producers, and Ted Kenney going through hours of footage with our whole team. I know its corny, but just a real team effort.

MMQB: Whats the story mean to you?

Glazer:I have never worked on anything like an international crime caper in my life. But that's what this was. You cannot be wrong on anything. Anything! At the end of it, though, were sports reporters. I am just happy at the end of the story one of the great players in NFL history gets something back that was stolen from himand a game that was so significant to his family because of everything his mother was going through. Im proud we were able to play some small part in getting that jersey back for him.

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I

Absolutely.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, in a frank admission when I asked him Thursday if he was bothered by losing the passion of the San Diego fan base and possibly the Oakland fan base with the Chargers moving to Los Angeles and the Raiders seemingly bound for Las Vegas.

I say frank because I expected him to say the NFL will build fervent fan bases wherever its franchises are. Instead, he admitted the league will be missing something special being out of two supportive markets.

I cant repeat this enough: The NFL is losing two of its best environments to play footballQualcomm Stadium in San Diego and Oakland Coliseum. Both housed loud and intense crowds, win or lose (Oakland especially), and were the epitome of good home markets.

II

Davis seems to be determined to move the team to Las Vegas, with a mindset hardened by the failure of Oakland to do anything until the Raiders were picking out drapes in their new house.

Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, on Oakland owner Mark Davis intentions on the even of the league meetings.

III

You dont have 32 starting-level quarterbacks in this league. You have about eight elites, and then you have the rest of the league. You have about eight, nine elite quarterbacks He would be a starter on probably 20 of the teams in this league. But youre telling me that youre going to let other guys, youre going to pick up some of these other guys and tell me that theyre starters?

Seattle cornerback Richard Sherman, on Colin Kaepernick, to ESPN, via Pro Football Talk.

IV

We just felt we should put an end to it. We dont think itll lead to more ties. Could it? It could. Are we concerned about that? No, were more concerned about player safety.

NFL Competition Committee chair Rich McKay, on the proposal to change overtime in regular season games from 15 minutes in duration to 10 minutes.

V

I became the answer to a trivia question: Who started in place of Walter Payton in the only game he ever missed? I did. And we got destroyed by the Steelers. But I ran for 110 yards, which made me the answer to another trivia question: Who were the only players to rush for more than 100 yards against the 1975 Steel Curtain? The other: O.J. Simpson.

Former Bears running Mike Adamle, 67, who is living in an assisted-care facility in Chicago after being diagnosed with dementia, to Dan Pompei in an enlightening and heartbreaking story for The Athletic.

Its stories like this that are just so many bricks in the wall, and rightfully so, for parents who will not let their children play tackle football.

VI

Here is something Straight from the horses mouth finding the best fit and helping a team win a championship is my main objective. Im in no rush.

Free-agent running back Adrian Peterson, who turned 32 last week, in an extended Friday Tweet.

VII

Im nervous, man. Im just telling you, these things move And were already at 1 oclock basically, so Okay, what do we got? [Pause. Listening.] I got it all. Just keep me posted. Im like hyperventilating over here. Yeah, so, it could happen in the next hour, next two hours, right? Are you going to send me, like, Go? Okay, Im on the lookout. Thanksbuhbye.

ESPN information man Adam Schefter, on the first day of free agency, on a call mining for information on the crazy Brock Osweiler-to-Cleveland trade three hours before he broke the story, as relayed by Tim Rohan of The MMQB.

Rohan (words) and John DePetro (video) hit a home run on the first of The MMQBs 24 Hours series in 2017. The regular feature on our site will pull back the curtain on a day in the life of an interesting figure in pro football.

TAKE US BACK TO THE OCHOCINCO DAYS:NFL players on how the celebration rules should change

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I

Interesting byproduct of NFL injury research from 2016: This was the least-injurious season for starting quarterbacks in at least 12 years. Charting games missed due to injury by starting quarterbacks over the past four seasons:

2013: 76.

2014: 77.

2015: 59.

2016: 35.

The average number of games missed by starting quarterbacks since 2004: 75.

The NFL defines this statistical category as being games missed by the declared starting quarterback of a team. So even though, for example, Cody Kessler did not open 2016 as the starting quarterback, he was knocked out of games that he started twice with concussions and missed a total of four games because of them. Those count on this list.

Why so low in 2016? Could be an outlier. Could be the start of a lower trend. The Competition Committee believes its because defensive players are getting wiser about late hits on quarterbacks, and officials are watching hits on quarterbacks with more focus, because the league office is harping on it so much.

II

Per Mike Reiss of ESPN.com, NFL coaches threw the challenge flag an average of 5.38 times in the 2016 season. Bill Belichick was dead last of the 32 coaches in challenge flags thrown. He threw one. Overall, I havent really had many issues at all with the officiating,Belichick told Reiss.

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I

The most interesting factoid from my podcast with Roger Goodell, recorded Thursday: The difference in average time of 2016 games, from the officiating crew that worked the shortest games to the crew that worked the longest, was seven minutes per game. Thus the desire to vote on two things involving officials: referees no longer traipsing to the hooded replay monitor next to the stands but rather getting the replays on a tablet.

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Momentous Change Will Mark NFL Annual Meetings - FOXSports.com