NFL to consider replay for missed player-safety penalties - ESPN

The NFL will discuss using video review to assess penalties for violations related to player safety that are missed by officials, the league said Friday.

Non-calls are currently not reviewable, but penalties such as grabbing the face mask, unnecessary roughness, roughing the passer and hip-drop tackles could be subject to review. It will be an offseason topic for the NFL competition committee.

«I would just say from a player health and safety perspective, we would like to introduce all and any opportunity and options for either putting a flag on the field or any way to try to address this in-game,» NFL head of football operations Dawn Aponte said in a conference call with reporters.

Face mask penalties have been among the most obvious violations that officials have missed. It would be a significant but not unprecedented change for the NFL. The league made pass interference reviewable in 2019, but it proved unpopular and was scrapped after one season.

«It's a newer conversation,» said Jeff Miller, the NFL executive vice president in charge of player safety. «We need to decrease to the extent we can, or improve safety, and one of the ways is to address what happens on field. However we go about doing that is something we'll talk to the committee about.»

Aponte said the league issued 30 fines for hip-drop tackles, which put players in danger of sustaining severe knee and ankle injuries. Officials threw just two flags for that tackle, and Aponte said one was an incorrect call and therefore didn't result in a fine.

Concussions on kickoffs

Concussions on kickoffs are up sharply because of a significantly higher number of returns while the rate of head injuries remains lower than it was before a change in the rules that was