NFL to Push Adoption Of 'Integrity' Proposals

The NFL's competition committee plans to recommend Commissioner Roger Goodell's "integrity of the game" proposals during the annual owners' meeting that begins Monday in Palm Beach, Fla.

"The main thing is accountability from top to bottom in protecting integrity and maintaining the confidence among our fans," Ray Anderson, the league's senior vice president of football operations, said in a conference call with reporters yesterday. "That's what we're looking to do moving forward."

In the wake of the videotaping scandal involving the New England Patriots last season, Goodell on March 6 sent a memo to the competition committee, the NFL's primary rule-making body, that outlined his plans for a crackdown on cheating. Among Goodell's proposals were unannounced inspections of locker rooms, stadium press boxes and in-game communication equipment. Owners, team presidents, general managers and coaches would be responsible for annually certifying compliance.

And the new threshold for imposing punishment for a rule violation would be closer to a preponderance of the evidence than beyond reasonable doubt. "You've got to make fans assured that you are paying attention to the issue, that you are directing as much energy as you can to the issue," Atlanta Falcons President Rich McKay, the co-chairman of the committee, said on the conference call. "I don't believe there's a problem, but I do believe that because of the situation that occurred we owed it to our game and to our fans to try to enact as much as we need to to make sure people are comfortable that this was an isolated incident that's behind us."

In September, Goodell fined the Patriots $250,000 and Coach Bill Belichick$500,000 and stripped the team of a first-round draft pick after it was caught videotaping the defensive signals of the New York Jets' coaches.

The committee also plans to recommend a "dead period" of five to seven days before the beginning of free agency in which teams would only be permitted to speak with the agents of potential free agents. Players would be prohibited from having contact with teams and contracts could be negotiated but not executed.

-- Jason Reid