Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 14, 1990 TAG: 9003142659
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From Associated Press reports
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Commissioner Paul Tagliabue said the new procedures would cut game time by five to six minutes from last year's average of 3:11, with an additional three minutes knocked off by his decision to cut halftime from 15 to 12 minutes. But it will also eliminate an estimated six plays per game.
The owners also awarded the 1993 Super Bowl to Phoenix, which won out over Los Angeles and San Diego. The game could be withdrawn from Phoenix if Martin Luther King's birthday is rescinded as a state holiday.
The move to speed up games involves four separate changes.
One mandates that the clock be restarted on the referee's ready signal on all out-of-bounds plays, except in the last two minutes of the first half and the last five minutes of a game. That ready signal is given when the referee deems both teams are ready to resume play.
The clock also will be restarted on the ready signal following a kickoff return or a declined penalty, again with the last two minutes of the half and five minutes of a game excepted.
And it also reduces from 30 seconds to 25 the time a team has to put the ball into play following a clock stoppage. The 45-second clock that starts as soon as the previous play ends, however, remains in effect.
"We don't want to take plays out of the game," said Jim Finks, chairman of the rules-making competition committee. "But we're more interested in the quality of plays rather than the number of plays."
In the long run, Phoenix' first Super Bowl may be more controversial.
At one time, Arizona didn't celebrate Martin Luther King's birthday, keeping numerous organizations, including the NBA, from holding conventions and meetings there.
The state legislature voted last September to celebrate King Day, but removed Columbus Day as a holiday in an effort to limit the number of paid state holidays. However, a referendum drive placed on the ballot for this November a measure that once again would drop the King holiday and replace it with Columbus Day.
"If there is a smear on the Martin Luther King holiday of any kind, I will personally lead the effort to rescind the Super Bowl," Philadelphia Eagles owner Norman Braman said. "How could anybody in his right mind go there and play a game?"
In other action, Tagliabue appointed a seven-member committee, which he will chair, to begin examining expansion and realignment.
Tagliabue said he would like to see the league realigned along geographic lines that make more sense, like taking Phoenix out of a division based primarily in the east.
\ The Philadelphia Eagles expect to participate in the first NFL game played in the Soviet Union, team owner Norman Braman said.
NFL commissioner Tagliabue said there is a "live possibility" of a preseason game in Moscow as early as this summer.
\ Bill Walsh will soon be coaching again - but not a team.
Walsh, former 49er head coach and now NBC's pro football analyst, will be conducting a quarterback camp for three weeks next month, working with two quarterbacks at a time in intensive training.
The Raiders, the Jets and the Chiefs will be participating as teams, and there will also be individual quarterbacks who will come on their own.
by CNB