Inconsistently Enforced Rules May Undergo Some Changes

The NFL’s annual meeting, which will begin today in Kona, Hawaii, will be used as a forum for resolving differences between coaches and game officials, according to members of both groups.

At a preliminary conference with league administrators, “the coaches asked for more consistency in officiating,” NFL Vice President Joe Browne said the other day.

Jerry Seeman, the NFL’s new director of officiating, fired back: “What we need is more consistency in the rules.”

The league’s 28 club owners, who have the final say on game procedures, will try to resolve the conflict this week the usual way--with rule changes.

There are two areas of apparentunfairness:

--Young NFL quarterbacks have been increasingly at a disadvantage with older ones who have learned how to ground passes deliberately without getting caught. Thus the intentional-grounding rule is inconsistently enforced.

--Different referees call the grasp-and-control rule differently, benefiting some quarterbacks more than others.

Possible solutions: legalizing throwaways, and strengthening the grasp-and-control language with synonyms for held-and-stopped.

At today’s opening session--and periodically until the meeting ends Friday--the owners will also confront such thorny issues as instant-replay officiating and 1993 expansion. There are large NFL constituencies against instant replay and for adding two new franchises soon.