Rooney: Address relocations
PHOENIX — Steelers president Art Rooney II said the NFL might have to reevaluate its relocation policies after the Oakland Raiders became the third team in two years to move to another city.
The Raiders, who will move to Las Vegas in 2020 after receiving an overwhelming 31-1 vote from NFL owners, join the St. Louis Rams and San Diego Chargers — each of whom moved to Los Angeles and eventually will play in the same new stadium — as teams who have jumped cities since the conclusion of the 2015 season.
“It’s something we have to look at,” Rooney said. “We don’t want to see teams relocating on a regular basis. It’s fair to say we need to look at that so we’re doing everything we can to make sure teams stay in their own market.”
Then Rooney added, “I hope it will be a long time before we have another [move].”
The Steelers were among the 31 teams who approved the Raiders move, citing the inability of the city of Oakland to build a new stadium and create stability for the franchise as the chief reason. Nonetheless, the move is something of an emotional dichotomy for the Steelers because they had many memorable games against the Raiders in Oakland during their 1970s heyday.
“My own personal opinion is that the presence of the baseball team on that site was a complication that they couldn’t find a way to work around,” Rooney said.
Rules, new and old
League owners voted to do away with the leaper block on field-goal attempts and penalize teams who commit deliberate multiple fouls on the same down such as the “all-holds” chicanery executed by the Baltimore Ravens last season.
But they tabled until their next meeting the decision to reduce the overtime period from 15 minutes to 10 minutes.
Otherwise, it was an uneventful final day at the annual owners meetings at Arizona Biltmore Resort, so uneventful they ended a day early.
“I don’t remember this happening before,” Rooney said.
The league voted to make it an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty when multiple fouls are committed deliberately on the same down after what the Ravens pulled in the waning moments of a game against the Cincinnati Bengals in November.
Leading by a touchdown with the clock winding down, the Ravens ran out the game’s final 11 seconds on fourth down by intentionally committing holding penalties against all nine Bengals player who rushed punter Sam Koch, allowing Koch enough time to dance around the end zone. The Ravens conceded the safety.
The “leaper” rule, proposed by the Philadelphia Eagles, prohibits a player from leaping over the line of scrimmage to block a field goal and extra-point attempt.
The Steelers were in favor of that rule and every other proposal that was passed Tuesday.
“When we looked at the video, some guys were ending up on their heads,” said Steelers coach Mike Tomlin, a member of the competition committee. “We don’t want to be reactionary in our thinking. We don’t want to wait until a catastrophic injury happens before we do something to remedy what we’re looking at.”
Other proposals that were passed by the owners:
• To make permanent the rule that disqualifies a player who is penalized twice in one game for certain types of unsportsmanlike conduct fouls. That rule was on a one-year experiment.
• Replace the sideline replay monitor with a handheld device and authorizes member of the officiating department in New York to make all final decisions on replay reviews.
• Extend for one more year the spot of the next snap after a touchback on a free kick to the 25.
• Give receivers running a pass route defense less player protection, even if he isn’t the intended receiver.
• Make illegal crackback blocks by a backfield player who is in motion, even if he is not more than 2 yards outside the tackle when the ball is snapped.
• Make illegal actions to conserve time after the twominute warning of each half.
No visit to Lions camp
Because they play the Detroit Lions in the regular season, Tomlin said the Steelers will not reciprocate and have a training-camp scrimmage in Detroit in August. The Lions came to Saint Vincent College last summer.
Tomlin indicated the Steelers could reciprocate in the future. He and Lions coach Jim Caldwell are good friends.
New boss lauds Timmons
Miami Dolphins coach Adam Gase, who faced Lawrence Timmons twice in the 2016 season, including the wild-card playoff game, was thrilled to sign him in free agency to a two-year, $12 million contract in free agency.
Timmons had 14 tackles (eight solo) against the Dolphins in the postseason game at Heinz Field and five solo tackles in the regularseason defeat in Miami. Gase said he needs players such at Timmons if the Dolphins want to get past the New England Patriots in the AFC East Division.
“He’s another guy that adds speed to that linebacker level,” Gase said. “When you’re playing the team that keeps winning our division, it’s hard to get those guys down. Those guys are making money off of run-aftercatch and we’ve got to do a great job of being able to wrap those guys up and get them down because if we can’t do that, that’s just creating explosive plays against some of these shorter throws.”
Timmons, who will be 31 in May, enters his 11th NFL season and will be one of the oldest players on the Dolphins.
“The ball is coming out so quick around the NFL that we need guys that can tackle at the safety and linebacker level,” Gase said. “I think he really adds that dimension. Then his leadership is really something that I’m excited about. It hit him when I told him he’s probably going to be the fourth-oldest guy in the locker room and he’s only 30. We need more guys that have that experience of being in Super Bowls and being playoff games, playing big games.”