The NFL announced yesterday that the owners "voted to allow a certified athletic trainer at each stadium to call a medical timeout if a player appears to be disoriented," though they "tabled a proposal to have fixed cameras positioned on the sidelines, end lines and goal lines," according to John Keim of ESPN.com. As part of the medical timeout, a spotter at the game would "communicate with the side judge if it's determined a player is showing obvious signs of disorientation or is unstable." Neither team would be "charged for a timeout -- and teams can replace the affected player only during this stoppage." The opposing team also "would be able to substitute a player to match up." Falcons President & CEO and Competition Committee co-Chair Rich McKay said Monday that a situation in the Super Bowl involving Patriots WR Julian Edelman was "among those they looked at when proposing the change." The change is "one of five safety enhancement rules approved by owners" at yesterday's meetings. Meanwhile, the fixed cameras are "designed to supplement the broadcast network cameras, thereby guaranteeing coverage of a play no matter where the network cameras are stationed." The teams want to "research this issue more before voting their approval" (ESPN.com, 3/24). USA TODAY's Jarrett Bell writes under the header, "Is NFL Playing Politics On A Sensible Proposal?" The fixed-camera proposal came from the Patriots, and Giants President & CEO John Mara said that cost "was one of the factors working against" it. Patriots coach Bill Belichick said, "I was disappointed to hear that we can't afford that. It was kind of surprising to hear." An anonymous team exec said that teams were told that the cost to install the cameras could approach $20M, and that manpower "was mentioned as another issue." But the exec also "senses that Belichick ... doesn't garner as much support as he could because of differences with colleagues around the league" (USA TODAY, 3/25).
WHAT OFFSEASON? The WALL STREET JOURNAL's Kevin Clark writes the NFL"has solved its biggest problem: its short, September-February season means it has the longest off time in sports." Clark: "What happens when you don’t have a season for a majority of the year? You invent one." Numbers from brand measurement company YouGov show that the popularity of the league in '13 "dipped after the Super Bowl and didn't come back up for months." In '14, the "buzz returned on March 10." This offseason, the general public "started talking about the NFL" on Feb. 18, around the time of the scouting combine. It is the "product of a handful of moves -- some that seemed laughable at the time -- to shoehorn events into months when the NFL has been dead." Clark: "Desperate for an event -- anything -- to expand the calendar, the league issued an internal challenge to a few NFL employees." One new product was the veteran's combine, which "generated significant media coverage for the NFL on a Sunday in March." NFL Exec VP/Media and NFL Network CEO Brian Rolapp said that this "second NFL season ... is about a decade in the making." It began when the NFL Network "started broadcasting" the scouting combine, and fans "turned it into a mega-event." Rolapp said that these strategic moves include "tweaking the league schedule to make sure that teams could negotiate with free agents three days before free agency begins" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 3/25).
