Computer chips in footballs will help the NFL to determine whether it’s time to narrow its goal posts, Postmedia has learned.

Dean Blandino, the NFL’s senior vice-president of officiating, said in a phone interview this weekend that the league and its competition committee “continue to look at” making field-goal kicking more difficult.

Over the past three seasons, NFL placekickers have been more accurate than ever on field goals, making 85%.

“The discussion has really revolved around narrowing the uprights,” Blandino said in a wide-ranging interview from Irving, Tex., during the league’s annual officiating clinic. “That would be one way to affect both the extra point and the field goal. (Success rates) have continued to climb over the years as our field-goal kickers and that whole process has become so specialized, from long snapper to holder to kicker.

“We’ll do some studies this year.”

In one such study, which Postmedia learned after speaking with Blandino, the NFL will have a computer chip inserted into each kick ball used during the preseason. These “instrumented” balls — with accompanying technology — will allow the league’s competition committee to determine, among other things, precisely how far inside the uprights all successful field goals (as well as extra points) have been kicked.

Postmedia furthermore has learned that, if this experiment goes well in the pre-season, the NFL competition committee might decide to continue such data gathering throughout the regular season, by using computer-chip kick balls only in Thursday night games.

Blandino said the competition committee after the 2016 season will digest findings from various studies “and determine, if we do decide to shorten the distance between the uprights, what is the right distance, and where should it be to make it a more difficult kick.”

Blandino did not discount the possibility of doing that as early as the 2017 season.

“You never know,” he said. “We’ll see what the data tells us. The committee will discuss it and then make a recommendation for 2017 if they feel that we need to go that route. But I wouldn’t know at this point, without seeing how it goes this year.”

Over the past three seasons in particular, the competition committee and some owners have discussed the possibility of reducing the distance between the uprights, from the long-standing 18 feet, 6 inches.

The league experimented with a 14-foot distance at the January 2015 Pro Bowl. Indianapolis Colts kicker Adam Vinatieri that night missed a 38-yard field goal, as well as two experimental 35-yard extra points.

With training camps less than two weeks from opening, Blandino also shed light on other rules and game-officiating matters, including the new touchback rule, this year’s point-of-emphasis crackdowns on rules already in the book, why the catch rule was altered again, the growing prospects of adding an eighth official, who holds the hammer in deciding controversial calls (central command in New York or a game’s referee), how the new CFL/NFL officiating partnership is progressing, and whether it’s time the NFL did away its allowable air-pressure range for footballs.

A transcript of the interview:

The new touchback rule is intended to reduce the number of kickoff returns — the most dangerous play in football — by incentivizing a kneel-down when the ball reaches the returner in the end zone. But some coaches and kickers say the opposite might happen. That there might be more kickoffs returned, because coaches will direct kickers to deliberately not reach the end zone, gambling that the returner won’t run it back as far as the 25. If that happens in preseason games next month, is it possible this one-year experimental rule could be abandoned before, or even during, the season?

-- “We’re going to wait to see what happens. I think preseason, historically, has not been a good indicator, especially on special teams and kickoffs, because most teams will want to see their coverage teams, their kick-return teams, so they’ll kick the ball short of the goal line. They’re trying to evaluate players. So we won’t use the pre-season as a gauge in those areas. We’ll wait and see how the regular season plays out. We have certainly talked to the special teams coaches, and there are some who say they’ll kick the ball into the field of play, and then there are others who say whereas they might have taken it out before, now they’ll keep it in the end zone because they’re getting the additional five yards on the touchback. It’s a one-year change, so we have that ability to look at it this year, and make adjustments beyond 2016 if needed.”

What are this year’s new points of emphasis on rules already in the book, such as the pass-coverage crackdowns of two years ago?

-- “This year, there are three points of emphasis. One is low hits on the quarterback in the passing posture. That was something that we did see an increase in last year, so the competition committee wants us to emphasize that. The quarterback in the passing posture in the pocket gets protected from hits in the knee area or below — forcible hits. And it’s incumbent on the defender to avoid (that area) when the contact is avoidable. That will be an emphasis point. We’ve spent a lot of time with coaching staffs, and spent a lot of time looking at game video with our game officials.

“We’re emphasizing runners — quarterbacks for the most part — who slide to gain additional protection. So any runner can slide feet first and gain special protection, and actually be treated like a player who’s down by contact. But the key is you have to slide feet first, and you have to slide before contact is imminent … If they slide any other way than feet first, they don’t get additional protection.

“We’re also looking at crown-of-the-helmet hits by defenders on runners outside the tackle box. That rule was put in in 2013, and that will be an emphasis point. In the past the defender had to line up the runner, lower his head and use the crown to make forcible contact. The committee looked at that and we’re eliminating the line-up provision, so any forcible contact with the crown of the helmet — the very top of the helmet — to a runner outside of the tackle box will be a foul, regardless of the path the defender takes.”

If, as you and competition committee members have been insisting for years, the catch rule is clear and easy to understand, then why for the second straight year has the rule’s language been substantially altered?

-- “Well, we look at language every year. We look at attempting to clarify things. There’s still debate on the catch rule in certain plays. And so we just looked at that part of the rule that tends to be the most up for debate, which is that time element, and just try to make it clearer for everyone, and give people something tangible that they can point to that can indicate the time element. So it’s now catch, plus two feet, plus time. After the second foot is down, if the receiver is able to tuck the ball away, if he’s able to turn up field, if he’s able to avoid contact — these are all things that would be an indicator of him having the ball long enough … If you look at the history of the catch rule, the language has changed over the years and, again, always in a attempt to make the rule clearer.”

Are there any experiments this preseason, such as adding an eighth official in some games?

-- “Yes. There will be an eighth official experiment in Week 2 of the preseason. That eighth official will be in the defensive backfield, not quite as deep as the back judge but deeper than the original, traditional umpire’s spot. And so we’ll study it, and we’re looking at those two officials — back judge and the eighth official — almost as a safety tandem, and transitioning based on the alignment and where the football is snapped from, which hash, and things like that, and reading the formation and being able to adjust … The competition committee did make a recommendation for us to consider going to eight officials for 2017, so based on the information we can gather, we’ll have some more conversations with the committee. So it’s a possibility for 2017.”

I visited the NHL’s central-replay command centre two years ago, and your counterparts in the NHL said the best thing about their having the ultimate say in replay decisions is that interpretations of all controversial plays now ultimately rest with only a handful of men in the NHL situation room — men who have developed and know the precise criteria for what does or does not constitute, say, a kicked-in goal. Does the new NFL rule passed at the May owners meeting allow you and others in the NFL command centre to act likewise?

n “Well once we went to our consulting process, we had that ability to try to manage the decision-making process, and to provide more consistency. Similar to the NHL, when you have a smaller group of people you can manage all of those decisions and be a part of those decisions, and we can create more consistency. Now, with the ability to get involved in certain administrative aspects of the game, and helping out on penalty enforcements and administration, I feel like we can provide even more consistency, and to work with our referees to eliminate mistakes and avoid situations that can negatively impact games.”

Didn’t all decisions until this year ultimately rest with the on-field game referee? As I read the new rule, the central command centre now can maybe suggest they do otherwise.

-- “No, the final decision is still with the referee, but we have a lot of input. Ultimately, it’s a collaborative decision, and we provide a lot of input … For the most part we get on the same page.”

Is the competition committee concerned at all that it seems to be standing at odds with nearly all other head coaches, and probably a growing majority of fans, in opposing the opening up of coaches’ reviews for all plays?

-- “The committee has been open to discussing it, and the committee has reviewed all of the proposals. What’s really important and something the committee is really mindful of is the unintended consequences of opening up replay, because the rules are written for on-field officials to make calls in real time. To open up everything to replay does create a somewhat different standard, when you have the ability to look at slow-motion replay and look at things in different ways than the officials can on the field. So I wouldn’t say the committee is completely at odds; they’re open to discussing it. But they are, and this has been the case in other areas too, they’re very measured and very calculating in how they go about considering these things. They want to make sure that we vet out the unintended consequences before we make major changes.”

As you know, just about everybody in the CFL seems happy that their coaches can challenge called or not-called pass interference. Does that impact your thinking or the competition committee’s?

-- “Absolutely. We look at the other leagues, what other organizations are doing. We have had a lot of collaboration with the CFL in discussing things with their officiating department and their football-operations group. We study that, and we look at how they’re doing — the positives and the negatives. So it’s something that we continue to do, and if we’re going to improve we have to see what other organizations are doing and think about best practices … We’ll see how this CFL season plays out, look at their statistics, talk to their officiating people and use that information when we go to the competition committee meetings in the off-season.”

How has the new NFL/CFL cross-border officiating partnership gone this spring and summer, and what do you hope the NFL learns from it?

-- “It’s really been positive. We’ve had several of our officials that have worked games up in Canada. It’s really about development. That’s what it is. It’s getting NFL officials more opportunities and more snaps to develop their skills, then having CFL officials come and be a part of our development program and get that experience, then be a part of NFL mini-camps, training camps and preseason games … It’s been very positive. The NFL officials have had great experiences so far. The rules are different in some ways, but the basic foundations in terms of pass interference, holding and those things are the same.

“We have three CFL officials here at our officiating clinic. They’re going through testing and video review. They’re really getting a lot of experience and developing their skills along the way.”

Dean, will there be any further changes to ball-handling procedures this year — pregame, postgame, halftime — whether it be how balls are secured, or whether and when they are to be checked for air pressure?

-- “No, nothing new on the game balls. They’ll still go through the same protocols as last year, with the testing with random checks to make sure that the chain of custody and all of the protocols are being following properly.”

Given that footballs during outdoor games naturally, routinely, expand above and below the NFL’s allowable air-pressure range of 12.5 to 13.5 PSI, depending on the weather, shouldn’t the league expand that range, or otherwise do away with the rule entirely?

-- “You know, we really take our direction from Wilson, the football manufacturers. That’s the optimum range of performance for the football, so that’s the range we use. We’ll continue to study and look at that, but I think we’re comfortable where we are right now, and I don’t see any need to make a change at this point.”