PHOENIX — On one hand, the last four days in the NFL owners meetings at the Arizona Biltmore represented a gigantic breakthrough for the NFL’s 32 head coaches.
On another, this was just a step.
Next season, the league will add offensive and defensive pass interference to its replay system, opening such plays to coaches challenges for 56 regulation minutes and to replay review for the final two minutes of each half of every game. And this rule was passed almost entirely because the NFL’s coaches wouldn’t quit on it. The group didn’t get everything they wanted, but they fought hard this week to get meaningful change—which has historically never been easy to pry from the clutches of their bosses, the NFL’s team owners.