By Bob Condotta

The Seattle Times

PHOENIX — A few hours after Seahawks coach Pete Carroll called allowing pass interference to be a reviewable play “an idea worth investigating” it turned from idea to reality.

As reported by NFL.com, the league’s official website, owners voted 31-1 Tuesday evening to approve “a rule proposal that allows for offensive and defensive pass interference, including non-calls, to be subject to review.”

As additionally reported by NFL.com, coaches can challenge calls in the first 28 minutes of each half while calls will be subject to booth review in the final two minutes of each half. Coaches will still have only two challenge flags to use. And the rule change is only approved for the 2019 season for now.

The Bengals were reported to be the only team not in favor of the proposal, which was heavily influenced by the non-call at the end of the NFC Conference Championship game between the Rams and Saints (the Saints felt a missed defensive pass interference call on LA’s Nickell Robey-Coleman prevented New Orleans from having a fair chance to win the game).

Coaches debated the proposal in meetings Monday, and speaking to reporters on Tuesday morning before the vote, Carroll indicated that he was in favor of it.

“I think it’s an idea that is worth investigating,” Carroll said. … “It’s worth looking at.”

Carroll said he felt it was particularly worth looking into because of “how volatile a play it is because it’s a spot foul and 50-yard plays are in discretion all the time (and review could) give us a chance to clarify some of those calls that might have gone the wrong way.”

Carroll said he has always been in favor of “trying to keep the (game) going” and not get too bogged down in replays and challenges.

But he said coaches were told there were only .6 challenges per game last season (.3 per team), which he felt indicated there could be an expansion of replay without slowing the game down too much.

“Not even a full challenge a game on the average, that’s the stat they’re giving us, which surprised everybody,” Carroll said. “Everybody thought there would be more than that. So, with challenge opportunities it could go up a little bit. I can’t imagine it not. I don’t know how it can stay that low. If that happens (adding plays that can be challenged) it’ll affect the game a little bit.”

Carroll said one thing he’s curious about with pass interference able to be reviewed “is what happens to the rest of the play” with everyone understanding that pass interference could be reviewed — in other words, will it change how players play and coaches coach “because you can’t review every play.”

But Carroll said he thinks it’s worth trying to see if added replay can eliminate a few missed calls of a penalty that can be as game-changing as any other.

“There are so few challenges happening right now,” Carroll said. “Maybe we will utilize those a little bit more and maybe the guys upstairs can get a look and they can stop it and look at ‘okay, the guy did grab somebody’ or ‘he did shove somebody’ — something that they couldn’t see at full speed.”

Some observers have worried that as more and more plays are added as ones that can be reviewed, eventually virtually every play will be one that can be reviewed and the games will become unwatchable. But Carroll said he thinks everyone involved understands the balancing act between trying to get calls right and not impacting the game too greatly.

“It’s not going to happen where we’re going to change everything — that’s not happening,” Carroll said. “But the movement and the direction we’re going is very positive. I know the coaches are really encouraged about it moving forward and putting it in a good place.”