NFL turns down proposal on replay

A proposal to make down-by-contact plays reviewable by replay was rejected by NFL teams on Wednesday.

The proposed change was perhaps the most important in a package of rules changes approved by the league’s competition committee. It would have allowed the referee to use replay cameras to look at fumbles even though the whistle had blown, something that currently ends the play regardless of what the cameras might see.

It did get 20 of 32 possible votes but not the 24 required to implement it for the one year it was being proposed.

Among the approved rules was one that will make illegal a peel-back block below the waist and from the back. Those blocks most often happen on screen passes and after interceptions.

Voted down were changing the defensive pass interference rule from a spot foul to the 15-yard variety, as in the colleges, on long plays; placing two TV cameras by the goal lines for replay on questionable touchdowns; and eliminating the automatic first down from the 5-yard illegal contact plays by defenses.

Prime-time TV deal still in works

It could be a while before the NFL finalizes the prime-time portion of its television packages.

The current eight-year contracts worth $17.6 billion run out after the upcoming season, but Fox already has agreed to a six-year, $4.3 billion deal to keep the NFC games on Sundays, while CBS will keep the AFC games for $3.7 billion.

However, the league isn’t close to any agreements for its biggest moneymaker, the Sunday night/Monday night packages. ABC and ESPN combined paid $9.2 billion for the prime-time games.

But Walt Disney Co., which owns ABC and ESPN, has not offered anything acceptable to the NFL to renew the contracts. So other players have become involved.

What is the league looking at?

“A better question might be, ‘Is there anything we have not explored,’ ” commissioner Paul Tagliabue said Wednesday at the league’s annual meetings. “We’ve looked at ESPN for Monday nights, other networks for Sunday nights or Monday nights, ESPN for Sunday nights, split packages on Monday nights.”

Super Bowl may come to New York

The Super Bowl is coming to the Big Apple in 2010. Maybe.

Now all the New York Jets have to do is get approval for their stadium project on the West Side of Manhattan, which is no slam dunk.

NFL owners voted 31-1 to award the 2010 game to New York, provided the 75,000-seat stadium, whose cost now has reached nearly $2 billion, is built.

There still are many hurdles before the Jets can break ground on what also would be the centerpiece of the city’s 2012 Summer Olympics bid.

Earlier this week, the Jets substantially increased their bid for the land on which the stadium with a retractable roof would be built, upping it to $720 million. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which owns the land that currently is used as train yards, will choose among three bidders on March 31.

Bruschi could miss season

New England Patriots linebacker Tedy Bruschi is considering sitting out next season for health reasons after suffering a minor stroke last month, The Boston Globe reported.