Thursday, March 6, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
Nobody is sure, but for the first time since the league dropped using instant replay to aid referees five years ago, NFL owners will vote on bringing back the system when they meet next week in Palm Desert, Calif.
The NFL competition committee has agreed to offer a proposal on replay nearly as broad as the one that was voted out after the 1991 season. But this time the review would be initiated by coaches and the decision would be made by the referee after viewing a monitor on the field.
"The coaches would like some kind of flood insurance, some kind of replay insurance so that when you get one call of overwhelming importance, like the last play of the 1995 AFC Championship game, there will be some way to be sure," NFL vice president of communications Joe Browne said Wednesaday. "They know it was called correctly, but they want to have that insurance."
Browne referred to a desperation pass from Indianapolis' Jim Harbaugh that was juggled and dropped in the end zone by teammate Aaron Bailey. Pittsburgh escaped with a 20-16 victory and went to the Super Bowl.
An experiment used during 10 nationally televised exhibition games last year and a proposal by the Washington Redskins have been combined into the proposal on which the owners will vote.
Browne would not elaborate on the plan because he said the teams had not been informed. But he said the proposal went beyond the league experiment, which applied only to scoring and sideline out-of-bounds plays. The Redskins' plan added possession plays and pass interference.
The last vote on replay came at the 1992 meetings, when it was voted out. Seventeen teams voted in favor, 11 against, four short of the 21 votes then needed to approve it for its sixth season.
Now, with expansion to 30 teams, 23 votes are needed, making it a bit more difficult for a proposal that was narrowly approved a year at a time from 1986 through 1991.
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