NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell pledged to speed up the pace of the game in a letter to the fans, but the Redskins have the exact opposite idea. They’re submitting a rule proposal that would give teams unlimited challenges, so long as they keep winning.

From the Redskins’ website:

  • The Redskins are proposing that teams can have an unlimited number of challenges that initiate Instant Replay so long as previous challenges in-game are successful. This eliminates the requirement that teams have to win their first two Instant Replay challenges to be awarded a third challenge. Teams would still get at least two challenges every game. 
  • Currently, three challenges is the max a team can receive in a given game.
  • The Redskins cite “competitive fairness and integrity of the game” for this proposal.

If I had to guess, I’d say it won’t pass. Giving teams unlimited challenges would completely ruin the NFL’s plan to speed up replay reviews -- and the same can be said about the Seahawks’ and Bills’ proposal to make every single penalty challengeable.

But that doesn’t mean instant replay won’t be changing. In Goodell’s letter to NFL fans last week, he revealed how the league plans to speed up the game. One of his proposals was to centralize replay reviews:

For example, next week clubs will vote on a change to centralize replay reviews. Instead of a fixed sideline monitor, we will bring a tablet to the referee who can review the play in consultation with our officiating headquarters in New York, which has the final decision. This should improve consistency and accuracy of decisions and help speed up the process.

That centralization will involve the league’s head of officiating Dean Blandino having the final say on all challenges.

“We are going to centralize the replay back here in New York,” Goodell told ESPN’s Mike & Mike, via PFT. “Dean Blandino will have the final decision. We think that will move it much quicker.”

Washington’s unlimited challenges proposal wasn’t the only one the franchise submitted. The Redskins also proposed a rule that would allow teams to opt out of wearing “Color Rush” uniforms and a rule that would reward a team for a putting the football through the uprights on a kickoff.