A measure that will nearly eliminate the need for defensive hand signals from coaches passed muster with NFL owners at their meetings today. The vote was 25-7 in favor of a rule that will now allow defensive coaches to signal in the plays through a radio headset to a player in the huddle. 
Had the measure been approved last year, the Spygate incident that blew up in week 1, when the Patriots were caught illegally videotaping the Jets' defensive coaches' hand signals, might never have happened.
The proposal was widely expected to pass this year, partly as a result of the controversy surrounding Spygate.
Bill Belichick said earlier today that he supported the idea of defensive signals being called in through the headsets, but he voted against the measure last year because of concerns about how many players would need to have the headsets in their helmets.
The competition committee came up with the idea of having one player assigned to carry the headset, with an alternate in the event the first player was either hurt or not on the field because of a situational substitution.
Teams will still have a backup system of hand signals in the event there's a problem with the radio headsets. But at least the owners have taken an important step in reducing the likelihood that teams will steal hand signals.
In case you're wonderig, the Patriots voted in favor of the measure this year. Voting against: The vote was 25-7 in favor -- 24 yes votes were required -- and all seven negatives came from head coaches with offensive backgrounds.
Voting against the measure were teams whose head coaches have offensive backgrounds: Seattle (Mike Holmgren), Tampa Bay (Jon Gruden), Oakland (Lane Kiffin), Philadelphia (Andy Reid), St. Louis (Scott Linehan), Washington (Jim Zorn) and Green Bay (Mike McCarthy).