As the NFL's competition committee soon considers a rule that would penalize players for using the N-word on the field, one veteran believes it will be difficult for the league to police the use of the racial slur.

"I think it's going to be really tough to legislate this rule, to find a way to penalize everyone who uses this word," Ryan Clark, a Pittsburgh Steelers safety who's spent 12 years in the league, told ESPN's Bob Ley during an "Outside The Lines" special report. "And it's not going to be white players using it toward black players. Most of the time you hear it, it's black players using the word."

The OTL broadcast aired Sunday night, just days after the head of the Fritz Pollard Alliance, which monitors diversity in the NFL, said he expects the league to establish a rule that would call for a 15-yard penalty for players who use the N-word on the field.

John Wooten, the head of the alliance, anticipates that the competition committee will enact the rule at the owners' meeting in late March.

"I will be totally shocked if the competition committee does not uphold us on what we're trying to do," Wooten said, according to CBSSports.com.

OTL examined the use of the N-word across generations and the black and white cultures, and tapped into the ongoing controversy in Miami. Last week investigator Ted Wells, who was hired by the league to examine the Dolphins' workplace environment, concluded that offensive lineman Jonathan Martin was subjected to "a pattern of harassment" that included racial slurs from teammate Richie Incognito.

The scandal, which came to light in November, fueled months of debate over locker room etiquette and language and whether the N-word is an acceptable term of endearment among teammates within the culture of football (Martin is black, Incognito is white).

Clark, who is black, said Sunday that he thinks Incognito was "empowered to use the word."