Football Zebras.com

Jets trainer Sal Alosi, who was suspended for the remainder of the 2010 season and postseason for tripping an opponent, has confirmed conspiracy theories that there was a deliberate attempt to ensnare a member of the Dolphins’ punt coverage.

Alosi admitted to the Jets, after his original discipline was announced, that he aligned inactive Jets players in a 5-yard sideline flank intending on creating an obstacle along the sideline. There is no specific “rule” against it, other than it is unsportsmanlike conduct.

However, there are sideline restrictions in place, but officials are unable to patrol sideline activity, unless it involves the boundary line or some obvious interference from the sidelines. I can recall attending an NFL game on a windy day where the referee directed stadium security to call the sideline because of an allegation that a large door was opened when the visiting team had the ball. The referee wasn’t monitoring the situation, but directed stadium personnel to take charge.

Nonetheless, the NFL issued a reminder to all 32 teams that sideline interference harms the integrity of the game, as if that needed to be said. However, there is one new point of enforcement in the league’s memo:

To assist with the enforcement of this rule, effective immediately, all game officials are being instructed not to engage in any prolonged discussion with any coach outside of the permitted zone while play is in progress.

Because this is a midseason change of mechanics, this automatically places it on the Competition Committee’s agenda for the offseason. We will put it on ours, as well.

The entirety of the NFL’s statement is after the jump.

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Usually we will give a complete rundown of the “Official Review” segment from the NFL officiating department, but we wanted to advance the news out of that segment to its own post first.

A tip-off to a rare midseason rule change was dropped as vice-president of officiating Mike Pereira (video) was dissecting the fumble recovery in the Eagles–Giants game, which appeared to give the ball to the Eagles with two seconds. Being a nonreviewable play, the half had expired, and the time was not added to the clock.

Pereira said that the league ownership—which currently has a quorum attending an unrelated labor seminar in Dallas—might pass an interim rule change to allow the time on the clock to be reviewable. Because all networks record a camera (usually the live play camera) with a superimposed image of the stadium clock (as opposed to a graphical representation in the “information bar” usually seen on the screen), this combined image could be used for making adjustments to the clock. Quoting Pereira:

We may look at actually making this a rule for the playoffs, that the clock could become reviewable in certain situations. Obviously, there are some situations where it can’t, but [it could for]:

• loose ball going out of bounds,
• runner going out of bounds,
• ball hitting out of bounds,
• a pass hitting out of bounds,
• a field goal hitting the net,

where you have a definitive picture as to when the ball should be dead, and you have the clock superimposed. We may be able to get that this year for the playoffs.

Under the criteria outlined by Pereira—there may be additional criteria that was not mentioned— the play from Sunday night would still not be reviewable. We crack our rulebook to Rule 15, Section 9, which lists under “nonreviewable plays include, but are not limited to … status of the clock, … recovery of loose ball in the field of play.” So, by striking “status of the clock” under the proposed rule change, we are still looking at a fumble recovery not being reviewable unless the sideline or end zone is under review.

And, obviously, the status of the clock by itself is not currently reviewable, but if some other element of the play is under review, replay can adjust the clock to be compliant with any overturned call.

As we found out with the 2,100-inch high-definition screen in the new Cowboys Stadium that blocks punts—yes, I just broke out the Pythagorean theorem to calculate the diagonal measure—any rule changes that occur midseason expire at the end of the season and are automatically placed on the Competition Committee agenda to discuss permanent inclusion.