After season ends, owners will have plenty to discuss

The NFL playoffs have provided plenty of fodder for league owners, executives and coaches to discuss -- with officiating and overtime at the top of the list.

The discussions, however, won't occur until the end of March at the league meetings in Phoenix. By then, emotions will have cooled and coaches currently vexed about bad calls might be more eager to head for the golf course than debate issues that have no easy answers.

"A lot is being made of it and something has to be done," Baltimore owner Art Modell said Tuesday. "But there's no automatic cure for the officiating. They're human and the players are human, too. They all do the best they can."

One thing that could hamper efforts to make improvements: League rules require a 75 percent vote on any change. That means 24 of the 32 teams must concur not only on changing a policy but also the remedy, something that has been extremely difficult to do on any issue with a hint of controversy.

That includes overtime and officiating. The debates over instant replay for nearly two decades have always been heated and the votes have always been very close.

Take overtime.

The Tennessee Titans' overtime win over the Pittsburgh Steelers' last week was another example of a team winning the toss and driving downfield to kick a game-winning field goal without the other team even getting the ball.

With overtimes becoming more common -- there were a record 25 this season -- there is continuing discussion about a way to make the outcome depend on more than just a coin toss. And the toss has become more important because offense is improving and kicking and kick coverage isn't, allowing a team taking the overtime kickoff to get good field position and move the ball easily.

But there's no consensus on how to change the rule.

Pittsburgh owner Dan Rooney, for example, said he favors both teams getting the ball -- with reservations.

"We'd have to put some restrictions on it," Rooney said. "Say, if the other team kicks a field goal, you've got to go for a touchdown."

Modell says he might favor some variation of the college rule, in which each team gets the ball at the opponents' 25-yard line and attempts to score. If the teams are tied after the first possessions, they keep going until someone wins.

But all NFL people agree that the 25 is too close for professionals because the kickers are too good and the 42- or 43-yard attempt would be too easy even if a team doesn't move the ball.

"I'd say push it back to the 40 and give a team four downs to do something," Modell said.

Nor is there any simple cure for officiating woes.

NFL officials were locked out for one game last year and finally agreed on a salary package for part-time work that gets many into six figures for part-time jobs as they get seniority.

Owners worry that the cost for full-timers would be prohibitive and wouldn't increase proficiency. They argue it might hurt because those with high-paying regular jobs would keep them and leave the NFL.

The wait until March, meanwhile, will cool things down to the point where very little may be changed.

Much was made, for example, of the acknowledgment by the league that the officials erred at the end of San Francisco's 39-38 win over the New York Giants in the wild-card round. The league said there should have been pass interference on the botched attempt by the Giants at a game-winning field goal and New York should have gotten another chance to kick.

Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, among others, was outspoken about the egregiousness of the error.

The Giants, however, seemed the least outraged. Owner Wellington Mara and general manager Ernie Accorsi said their team lost because they blew a 24-point lead, not because of one officiating mistake.

"I think there's some room for improvement, so you do what you can to help the officials," said Rooney, whose coach, Bill Cowher, was angry about a running into the kicker call against his team that allowed Tennessee to kick its winning field goal last Saturday.

"But you don't want to overreact because of something that happened in the Giants' game."

By March, that sentiment is likely to be widespread.