This is slightly off our core topic of officiating, but since it is a huge football milestone, we are veering a bit off course.

We decided to flash back to Brett Favre’s first NFL start in the record-shattering string: Sept. 27, 1992 with the Green Bay Packers hosting the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The list of items we found in the time capsule is after the jump. Add your observations to the list in the comments section of this post.

At the start of Brett Favre’s epic streak:

• The NFL had 28 teams. The Jaguars, Panthers, Ravens and Texans did not exist.
• The Rams and Raiders played in Los Angeles and the Tennessee Titans were the Houston Oilers.
• Of the 27 stadiums in use by the NFL at that time, nine are still hosting NFL games.
• George H.W. Bush was president; in a couple of weeks he would meet Bill Clinton and Texas billionaire Ross Perot in a series of three televised debates.
• The publicly available World Wide Web was a year old. There were no hits on nfl.com, because it did not exist yet. Fantasy football was done by paper by people who liked to do a lot of math.
• Fox had not yet broadcast its first NFL game. CBS had a contract for NFC games, and NBC carried AFC games on Sunday afternoon. The 49ers and Saints played a game that night, broadcast by TNT.
• The old instant replay review system that went into effect in 1988 was recently retired and would not return until 1999.
• Two-point conversions could only be scored in college and high school games.
• Leon Lett was an obscure linebacker for the Cowboys. His high profile fumble in the Super Bowl was at the conclusion of the 1992 season, and his Thanksgiving blunder was a year away.
• Titans receiver Kenny Britt, who is currently the youngest player in the league, had just turned 4.

However, as pointed out at Pro Football Talk, there is something more sinister afoot. While the video shows Alosi tripping Carroll on a sideline punt-coverage route, Alosi is flanked by five other Jets staff members. Keeping in mind that punt coverage players tend to go out of bounds frequently (either on their own or aided by the opponent), this obstruction has all of the hallmarks of being deliberatly disruptive to the game.

Of course, the excuse of the coaching staff is that they are in the designated bench area of the sidelines, and that no one is standing on the off-limits, six-foot-wide white boundary line. However, a player who is headed out of bounds can step around a single person who is standing in the mandatory bench location. When five yards of sideline are being “covered,” there is little that a player can do to avoid a collision or entanglement.

On the field, it is illegal to create a wedge when blocking on a kick return. This is defined as at least three players forming a “wall” to block the full-speed defenders headed towards the ball carrier. The Competition Committee found this to be dangerous, and the NFL outlawed the formation (by making it a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty) in 2009. What happened on the Jets sideline, while not a true wedge, created up a situation where collision was inevitable.

So, yes, the team staff was where they were allowed to be, however their actions show that they had an alleged inclination for tampering with the integrity of the game.

Updated 12/14. A previous version of this post stated that the NFL suspended and fined Alosi, when it was the team’s action in consultation with the league office.

The replay system as we know it needs further review. We are going to be highlighting these in an on-going series.

Part 1. Equal access to game footage

In 2007, the NFL upgraded its replay equipment to the same standard as the critics sitting in their Barcaloungers. However, each team must have the ability to make a fast decision on a replay that is not determined by a television director or Jumbotron operator.

In a Week 12 game, the Packers had a potential situation to review a catch by Falcons tight end Tony Gonzalez. The coaches in the booth, however, were unable to make a decision in time, because the Georgia Dome’s video feed was lagging behind by a play. In a universe where hordes of people were able to verify within seconds that they saw Janet Jackson’s nipple in the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show, a team’s coaching staff should be able to render a decision on a replay within 10 seconds.

Also, it is known that stadium personnel do not show a replay of a questionable call on the stadium’s screens that might be an advantage to the opponents. Conversely, they will replay a close call that would advantage the home team.

The technology exists for each team plus the replay booth to be able to rewind the previous play and be able to change the camera angle while replaying. This should include the closed-circuit cameras for the in-stadium displays as well. This removes the burden off of a network television partner to deliver the proper replay at the proper time for there to be a challenge, either from the sideline or from the replay assistant.

It is also strange that, in 2010, there is a video delay of over 30 seconds. The league should be monitoring these feeds (if, in fact, the video feeds are the responsibility of the facility), and if the video lags behind, there must be some way to allow the system to dump its memory and reset itself quickly. When video trails so long when one team has the ball, then that is a competitive disadvantage. If something simple like a coach’s headset malfunctions on one sideline, the other team’s bench must forgo their working ones until the problem is corrected. (Technological improvements have made that measure a relic of the past.)

And, while we are on the subject, can the replay booth get one or two tape decks as a backup? We noted last year that the Dolphins were unable to execute a challenge because the replay system needed to be rebooted. Even though the replay was available on the scoreboard and in the press box, those replays could not be fed through the replay equipment. After waiting the requisite two minutes (seriously, have you ever recovered from a system crash in two minutes?) the Dolphins were returned their challenge unused.

A trip to Radio Shack with less than $500 in your pocket can fix that.

We think that the overtime format, more than 50 years removed from its first use with no modification, has worked just fine. However, if we were on the Competition Committee—and we had to make a modification to overtime—we would have considered the following proposals before “modified sudden death.”

1. Move the kickoff to the 35. The simplest solution to reverse the field-position advantage gained when kickoffs were moved back to the 30 yard line is to move the overtime kickoffs to the 35.

2. Replace the coin toss in overtime. Rather than let an arbitrary coin flip “decide overtime,” as is often (incorrectly) argued (roughly a 60/40 advantage goes to the coin-toss winner), use an on-field element to determine the first possession in overtime. By giving possession to the team last in the lead, a team couldn’t score a last-second tying field goal in regulation, win the coin toss, and then have the first possession in overtime (essentially preventing two consecutive possessions at the end of the game to the trailing team).

3. Start overtime from the fourth quarter dead-ball spot. A slightly more radical proposal would do away with the coin toss and kickoff to start overtime, and have the teams merely switch sides of the field as if the beginning of regulation was the same as the beginning of the second or fourth quarters. The only way* overtime could have a kickoff would be if the final play of regulation is the game-tying score. The slight downside is a tie game at the two-minute warning gives no urgency, as the offense could grind out a ten-minute drive through the first eight minutes of overtime, although that would be because it was allowed by the defense. (*There would also be no kickoff starting the third overtime period, either, but that has never happened in an NFL game.)

4. Best kickoff return. This is the most radical suggestion, and not my favortite, but only slightly better than the proposal voted by the owners. Essentially conduct two kickoffs to start overtime, with the team attaining the best field position keeping the ball. Of course, back-to-back runbacks to the house would turn overtime into a home-run derby.

I will not be enjoying this game from the raucous bleachers (or even the press box) at Giants Stadium or in a Nashville sports bar. Instead, through the magic of the Internet and the lightning-fast signals of CBS Corp., I will be able to track this game from the comfort of my couch in sunny Los Angeles.

That should not diminish, however, your reading experience.

That said, I’m sure that the Wall Street Journal isn’t the first, nor last, major media outlet to blog or text a game live. However, the author’s point of blogging from the left coast, in spite of the ban, shows the absurdity on trying to keep the facts of the game exclusive to the established media partners. Coincidentally, the blogger is also writing from the largest city without a league presence.