Steelers owner Art Rooney II has long opposed new NFL rules that slow down games. He’s wary of the league’s latest proposal. At the league meeting this week, the owners will consider whether to expand New York’s reach over micro-officiating games. And he has some thoughts—and reservations—about that, as he told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Gerry Dulac.
“That’s kind of crossing a new line there, in terms of allowing New York to put a flag on the field”, Rooney told Dulac about the NFL’s proposal. “So far, we have not done that, and we’ve had discussions about not wanting to do that. So we’re taking a step across a new line doing that”.
Rooney said he wants to hear the NFL and competition committee’s arguments regarding the new proposal. Even so, he made it very clear that he is hesitant to see the league take this step. “I definitely have some reservations about that one”.
There are two rule proposals the NFL is considering concerning officiating regarding which Art Rooney may have reservations. One is a more general proposal that would essentially allow NFL headquarters to throw a flag for flagrant fouls and non-football acts. This would apply to the Steelers’ DK Metcalf situation in Detroit. Because on-field officials did not flag the incident, the league was unable to order an ejection. This proposal would allow New York to intervene, throw the flag, and eject Metcalf.
The NFL’s other proposal, I suspect, Rooney fears may become a permanent rule. As of now, the league is framing it as a one-year trial rule predicated on there being an officiating lockout. In the event the league has to use replacement officials, the rule would allow the NFL to “correct clear and obvious misses made by on-field officials that impact the game”.
In 2012, the NFL experienced a work stoppage for officials that bled into the regular season. Several high-profile blown calls were highlighted that year until we reached the “Fail Mary” play, which coaxed the NFL into rushing back to the negotiating table and hammering out the loose ends of a new collective bargaining agreement with the NFLRA.
This offseason, especially with these rule proposals, the NFL is already going full-court press against the NFLRA. In case you didn’t notice, that CBA is set to expire. The league has already employed its most loyal media personalities to push its narrative and leak its intention to begin hiring scab officials before the CBA actually expires. But Rooney’s concerns about the NFL’s rule proposals seem to be more fundamental to the game itself.
“It could definitely impact some of these things we’ve done with the idea that it would improve pace of play,”, he said. “I don’t think we’ve really shortened the game in a meaningful way recently. That is a concern in terms of, just for me at least, I don’t want to see more flags on the field than we have now. I would hope that if we cross this line and go down this road, it would be kind of a rare use of that new rule”.