Helmet-device plan has NFL's ear again

By Jeff Legwold, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published March 28, 2008 at 7 p.m.
Updated March 28, 2008 at 11:33 p.m.

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It is a sign of the times.

A sign that perhaps the easiest way for the NFL to deal with the practice of trying to steal defensive signs on game day might be to simply remove them from the equation.

"I think people are ready for it," said Atlanta Falcons president Rich McKay, co-chairman of the competition committee. " . . . And I do feel its time has come."

When the NFL's decision- makers, including commissioner Roger Goodell, the league's franchise owners, front-office executives, general managers and coaches gather in Palm Beach, Fla., in the coming week for the league's annual meetings, one of the items to be voted on will be adding a coach-to-player communication device into a defensive player's helmet.

A similar device has been worn for years by quarterbacks, now an accepted part of doing football business. But in the wake of "Spygate," the sanctions on coach Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots, and the public uproar about the Patriots videotaping Jets coaches from the sideline as they signaled in calls to their defense that even included Congress, a league that usually leans toward the equation of points scored equals tickets sold is ready to give one to the defense.

"It's our third shot at it," McKay said. " . . . I do believe that it does have a better chance, maybe because the focus has been on the situation in New England earlier this year."

So, instead of a wide array of hand signals used to convey the play call before every snap, the defense now would do what the offense has been doing - simply send it in over the airwaves and let a player relay it to everyone else in the huddle.

It takes 24 "yes" votes from the 32 franchise owners for any proposal or rules change to be approved. In 2006, the first year the radio device for the defense was considered, 18 teams voted in favor of it. At meetings last year, 22 teams voted in favor of it, only two votes short of approval.

"But I think we've done some things, modified some things, to give it a better chance of getting in," said Titans coach Jeff Fisher, who also is a co-chairman of the competition committee. "We've spent some time with this."

The competition committee did tweak the proposal this year from the first two times it was sent to the owners to vote on. The first two times, it read that one defensive player would wear the earpiece in his helmet and one coach from the sideline could communicate the defensive play call to that player.

But even some defensive coaches balked because the proposal also said the earpiece could not be worn by another player, so if the player with the device in his helmet either left the field or was injured, there was no backup plan.

This year, the competition committee sent the proposal that two defensive players could wear a helmet with an earpiece, but that a team could not have two players wearing the helmets with the device on the field at the same time.

"I think our revision . . . takes away any argument the defensive coaches had with it," Mc- Kay said.

The "primary" player would have the earpiece in his helmet all the time. If he left the field, because of either a substitution or injury, the "backup" player then would be allowed to change helmets, getting one with the earpiece in it from the sideline and wear it until the "primary" player returns to the field.

Once the "primary" player returns, the "backup" player would have to change helmets again.

Both players would be designated to the officials before the game and both helmets, like the quarterbacks' helmets, would bear a special decal to show which ones have the earpieces in them so the game officials could make sure both are not in the game at the same time.

Broncos coach Mike Shanahan consistently has backed the idea of giving a defensive player an earpiece, citing the fact that initial resistance to giving it to the quarterbacks has long since passed.

"People argued against that at the time," Shanahan said after the season. "And now it's a no-brainer, it's accepted as part of the game. I think it would be on defense, too."

Some offensive coaches have resisted the idea in talks with their franchise owners, simply not wanting to give any more to the defense.

"But (having it) has been a distinct advantage for the offense," Bills coach Dick Jauron said.

It also would eliminate the growing conga line of hand wavers on the sidelines. Because trying to steal defensive signals - with binoculars from the coaches' box, which is not a rules violation, like videotaping them from the sideline - has long been an activity around the league.

As a result, some teams, like the Broncos, have had as many as three defensive coaches signaling in play calls to their defenses if they were facing a team with a former assistant coach or former player.

"And, hopefully, we'll get it passed," McKay said. "I think we've addressed what the concerns are."

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