Instant Replay Back for Exhibition Test

The retrial of instant replay will include sideline monitors, coaches’ challenges and limited access, the NFL announced Tuesday.

In details of the previously stated plan to test instant replay during 1996 exhibitions, the league said:

--It will be tested in 10 games.

--A maximum of three plays per half, per team, will be reviewed. Those three plays will be decided by each team’s coach.

--All reviews will be decided on the field by the referee.

--In three of the 10 games, the referee will examine a monitor that is moved onto the field. He will have 90 seconds to make his decision.

--In the other seven games, the referee will walk to a sideline monitor. He will have two minutes to announce his findings.

--Only three types of plays can be challenged. They involve scoring, out-of-bounds plays and questions over the number of players on the field. Fumbles, dropped passes and first-down spots cannot be challenged unless they also fall into the above categories.

--The earliest instant replay could be reinstated for the regular season would be 1997.

Instant replay was dropped after the 1991 season after a six-year run. The system was criticized because of game delays and officials in press boxes overruling those on the field.

The league, whose team owners are under pressure from their coaches to reinstate replay, hopes these changes will fix those problems.

Twenty-six of 30 coaches recently voted for replay. If this summer’s trial is successful, expect their owners to do the same next spring.

The league will also test instant replay during the season, although it will not be part of the games and nobody on the field will be aware of its findings.

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Commissioner Paul Tagliabue said at the owners’ meetings in Charlotte, N.C., that he was enacting a ban until the end of the season on any team engaging in discussions with another city that might be looking to land an NFL team. Calling his action a direct result of all the recent franchise-hopping, Tagliabue said any teams that violate the ban would be guilty of conduct detrimental to the league and could be fined $500,000.

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The Chicago Bears signed quarterback Dave Krieg, 37, to a one-year contract to back up Erik Kramer. Krieg started all 16 games last season for Arizona. . . . The Detroit Lions signed free agent running back Derrick Moore to a one-year contract. . . . Miami Dolphin tight end Eric Green had arthroscopic surgery on his left knee.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.