What about Bob? Glauber's NFL Blog

Come to think of it, maybe it was a good thing the restaurant worker at the posh hotel in Palm Beach, Fla. decided not to wash his hands after going to the bathroom and thus temporarily reducing my hunger pangs.

After leaving the restaurant to go back into where the NFL owners meetings were continuing, I ran into an owner who actually gave me an interesting story idea.

The owner, whom I will not identify because of the nature of our conversation (it's a reporter thing, don't worry), was talking about the Spygate affair and how it will simply not go away until Matt Walsh, the former Patriots employee who has hinted there is more damaging evidence against the team's illegal videotaping practices, says what he knows.

Walsh's attorney is trying to get an agreement with the league's attorneys that will protect him from any litigation before there is any contact between Walsh and the NFL. Anway, the owner suggested that at some point, the league ought to consider putting pressure on Walsh to talk by threatening - or even taking - legal action against him.

Very interesting point. Which was made even more interesting when I asked NFL commissioner Roger Goodell during his press conference a few minutes later if he'd consider such action. Goodell had some interesting answers, which I wrote about for the paper, but never got in because of space. Thus, the benfits of having a viable Internet site.

NFL owners have approved a measure to eliminate the forceout rule, thereby forcing receivers or defenders who intercept passes to have both feet down before going out of bounds.

Previously, an official could rule a play a catch if he felt the receiver/interceptor had been forced out before getting both feet down.

Palm Beach, Fla. - NFL owners defeated a measure earlier this morning that would have changed the playoff seeding format.

The proposal didn't come to an official vote after a show of hands indicated that there was no chance of passage. To change the current format, a minimum 24 owners would have had to approve the system.

"No way was that going to happen," said Giants co-owner John Mara, a member of the competition committee who supported a change to playoff format.

According to the competition committee's proposal, wild card teams that finished with a better record than a divisional winner would be seeded higher and potentially play a home game in the postseason. This past year, for instance, the Giants finished 10-6 and earned a wild card, but played on the road against the 9-7 Buccaneers, who won the NFC South.

We had a suspicion yesterday the Chiefs' proposal to require players with long hair to tuck it inside their helmet to make sure their number and nameplate on the back of their jersey would be tabled until a later date.

That's exactly what happened, as the NFL decided to take the matter up at their May meetings in Atlanta.

Even then, we suspect the proposal won't be adopted, especially after NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and the competition committee take up the matter with player representatives. Once Goodell said yesterday that he wanted to seek the players' input, we knew it wouldn't make sense to vote on the matter until that happened.

In the meantime, the NFL has some tricky collective bargaining issues they have to address. Too bad they weren't so simple as figuring out what to do with the players' hair.

By the way, the issue came up in one of the comments about whether it was a penalty to tackle a player by his hair. Answer: It's perfectly legal. It's considered a part of the body, and no penalty is called.

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).

We told you the week before last about some of the rules changes contemplated by the competition committee, but here's a review of what's on the docket at this week's owners meetings. The votes on these are expected to be held tomorrow and/or Wednesday.

*Changing the playoff seeding system. Remember last year, when the Giants had a better record than the Bucs but still had to play Tampa on the road during the playoffs? A proposal that narrowly passed muster in the competition committee (5-3 in favor) would granted a higher seed to a team with a better record, even if said team was a divisional wild card. Don't think this one will pass. Too many dissenting votes. But the measure does have its supporters.

"I like it because it makes teams play out the season," said Detroit Lions president Matt Millen, a member of the competition committee.

* Defensive coach-to-helmet communication system. The committee has voted unanimously to recommend that NFL owners adopt a rule allowing coach-to-headset communication for the defense. The proposed rule, which narrowly was defeated by just two votes last year, is expected to pass.

The coach-to-headset system will eliminate the need for defensive coaches to signal in plays, thus preventing teams from stealing signals. The Patriots were caught stealing signals in a Week 1 game against the Jets last season, setting off the Spygate scandal that continues to reverberate throughout the league.

* Force out rule being forced out? The competition committee has endorsed a proposal that would eliminate the "force-out" rule that has been the subject of much controversy over the years.

Under the current rule, an official can rule a pass near the sidelines a catch even if the receiver fails to get both feet in bounds. If the official feels that the receiver was forced out by the defensive back before being able to get both feet down, the play can be ruled a catch.

* Training camp rosters. They're currently at 86 before the first cut-down, but that included six additional spots for players from NFL Europe. Now that the league is defunct, owners must decide on whether to keep the rosters that high, or go back to 80 players. The competition committee endorsed this one unanimously, but the owners' vote could be close.