NFL NOTES : Vote Means There Will Be Less Joy in Glanville

Jerry Glanville, the Atlanta coach chastised by the NFL for his caustic comments about opposing coaches, may have summed up best the new crackdown concerning on-field celebrations.

“Someday,” he suggested, “they’ll have offsetting 15-yard dance penalties.”

Of all the rules enacted at these meetings, the ones that figure to have the most direct effect on what fans see are the ones that crack down on demonstrations, even along the bench. If Ickey Woods does his shuffle in front of the stands now, the Cincinnati Bengals can be fined by the commissioner’s office.

The new guidelines are designed to reinforce those enacted in the early ‘80s, when Washington’s “Fun Bunch” was high-fiving after touchdowns in the end zone.

But they do more -- barring postgame handshakes and fraternizing by players. Even prayer sessions involving players from both teams are banned, although players can kneel and pray briefly after scoring.

Glanville, one of the few coaches with a sense of theater, also was one of the few to argue against the new guidelines, even though he has enough enemies among other coaches (Chuck Noll, Sam Wyche) that he doesn’t have too many people with whom to shake hands.

He suggests this scenario from the past Super Bowl.

With 8 seconds left and the Giants leading the Bills 20-19, Scott Norwood lines up for a 47-yard field goal. It goes wide right and the Giants leap into the air, high-fiving each other in celebration of their victory.

Referee Jerry Seeman, now the supervisor of officials and one of the moving forces behind many of the changes, throws a flag.

“Illegal demonstration,” says Glanville. “Five yards. Norwood kicks from 42 and makes it.

“Bills win 22-20.”

The four-year impasse between the NFL and its dormant union has taken a new turn. The league, with the help of some union board members, is starting to put a squeeze on the funds the NFL Players Association is raising by its licensing efforts.

The vehicle is the NFL Quarterback Club, for which NFL Properties, the league’s licensing arm, is paying $100,000 per year for five years to 11 of the league’s top quarterbacks -- 12 if Joe Montana, who is now negotiating, agrees to join.

In return, properties will get a share of anything endorsed by the club members. Until now, that money has been going to the union to finance the various lawsuits against the league. Players no longer pay the $2,000 a year union dues.

Warren Moon of Houston, president of the Quarterback Club, has arranged for a small percentage of the revenue to go to the union. But the NFLPA still stands to lose a lot, simply because the quarterbacks are the most sought-after players in the league for endorsements.

Assuming Montana joins, the others include Moon, Bubby Brister, Boomer Esiason, Randall Cunningham, Phil Simms, Jim Kelly, Bernie Kosar, Troy Aikman, Jim Everett, and Dan Marino, who is also a union board member.

A lot of this was arranged by agents, who normally have a fairly close relationship with the union.

One moving force was David Fishof, Simms’ agent. But Leigh Steinberg and Marvin Demoff, the two leading agents in the NFL, also have clients in the club.

Though Plan B signings are increasing after a very slow start, the market is far more restricted this year.

“You’re not going to get starters out of Plan B,” says Buffalo general manager Bill Polian, not a fan of the system instituted to help defuse the antitrust suit filed by the union after the 1987 strike. “If a team like us can plug in a guy that will help us take the extra step, we’ll do it, but you can’t build a team around it.”

In fact, Buffalo has tried to use Plan B to plug the hole that probably cost it the Super Bowl.

It signed nose tackle Odell Haggins, whom Polian hopes will be the run-stopper the Bills didn’t have when the New York Giants controled the ball for 40 minutes, 33 seconds and rushed for 172 yards.

Haggins, on San Francisco’s developmental squad last year, is expected to alternate with Jeff Wright, a better pass rusher.

Last year, the Bills signed Don Smith, who helped them as a third-down receiver and short-yardage runner -- he had one of their touchdowns in the Super Bowl. “He replaced both Ronnie Harmon and Robb Riddick,” Polian says.

The bottom line?

Smith is unprotected this year.

The laid-back, bend-but-don’t-break defense of the Rams is a thing of the past.

With the dismissal of defensive coordinator Fritz Shurmur and the hiring of Jeff Fisher, a disciple of Buddy Ryan, the Rams will go completely to the “attack” defense, modeled on the “46” that Ryan made successful with the Bears and Eagles.

“We’re coming after you,” says coach John Robinson. “Quite frankly, we don’t have the enough good players on defense to ‘absorb’ an offense the way we used to. The Giants can absorb because they have so many great athletes. They don’t let you absorb very far into their defense.”

The NFL will see a smaller model of Bubba Paris next year.

Or it won’t see him at all.

The San Francisco 49ers left tackle, who reportedly finished the year somewhere around the 350-pound mark, has been told to report to training camp at somewhere around 320. If not ...

Paris reportedly weighed 370 in mini-camp last season, then lost 50 pounds for training camp. But as the season went on he put on much of what he had lost.

His problems were complicated when he had to play fulltime last season after alternating the previous year with Steve Wallace, who was moved to right tackle. Playing half a game made 1989 one of Paris’ best seasons, something that can’t be said about 1990.

Despite the departure of June Jones and Mouse Davis, the Detroit Lions will stick with the run-and-shoot offense this year . . . with a wrinkle.

“We have the best running back in football,” says coach Wayne Fontes, referring, of course, to Barry Sanders. “We want to get him the ball.”

So Fontes is looking for a tight end, unused in previous run-and-shoots, as well as larger wide receivers who can block.

“Last year, we’d have a 165-pound wide receiver trying to block down on a 280-pound defensive lineman,” Fontes says. “He’d get brushed away like a fly.”

Under the new system, the tight end may line up in the slot and block the lineman. Or it might be the (again unsigned) large wide receiver. Fontes also envisions more confusion among defenses, which played a nickel against the Lions most of the time but will have to use a more basic defense when a tight end is in the game.

“All Barry needs is a crease,” Fontes says. “He led the league in rushing without any big blockers. Think of what he can do in this system.”