NFL Abolishes Officiating by Instant Replay

After six controversial years of instant-replay officiating, the National Football League in a surprise move abolished the procedure Wednesday for the 1992 season.

It lost on an 11-17 vote by the league’s 28 club owners. The 11 negative votes were sufficient to defeat the 17-owner majority because, under the NFL constitution, a 21-club plurality is required to enact most proposals, including the one that instant replay be extended.

“This is a major step backward for the NFL,” said Jim Finks, president of the New Orleans Saints. “This is stupidity on the part of our league.”

Finks was joined in that view by a sizable number of the coaches, owners and executives who are meeting here this week. The action came on the fourth day of the annual convention.

The instant-replay procedure, which empowers an official with television replay equipment in the press box to overrule certain types of calls by officials on the field, added two minutes to the average NFL game last season, the NFL says.

That was too much for Michael B. McCaskey, president of the Chicago Bears, who led the successful revolt.

“We had to stop wasting time waiting for the (press box) official to act,” McCaskey said.

Both of the Los Angeles teams, the Rams and the Raiders, disagreed with McCaskey.

The clubs joining Chicago in opposing continued use of instant replay were Dallas, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Detroit, Tampa Bay and the New York Giants of the National Football Conference, and Cincinnati, Kansas City, Buffalo and the New York Jets of the American Football Conference.

McCaskey in other years has been able to muster only seven votes. The scale was tipped Wednesday by four new dissidents: Dallas, Philadelphia, Tampa Bay and the New York Jets--all of whom were hurt in games last season by plays involving the motion of the ball, the only kind that could be reversed.

“If it was a step backward, we only stepped back for one year,” Raider owner Al Davis said. “I’m sure we’ll (restore) it in 1993.”

The league’s decision to begin instant-replay officiating came in 1986 after three major controversies. All decided critical games, and the Raiders played in all three.

In the 1970s, Franco Harris of Pittsburgh scored on a disputed tipped-pass play--one often referred to as “the immaculate reception”--and in another incident, Rob Lytle of Denver crossed the goal line after an apparent fumble. Then, in 1984, Raider Dokie Williams was credited with a touchdown against Pittsburgh, although he had run out of bounds on the play.