Replacement officials, potential rule changes, artificial intelligence, health and safety issues, international growth and flag football will be among many topics discussed when NFL owners, executives and coaches gather for their annual meeting this week in Arizona.
One topic that dominated the conversation this time last year — the tush push — isn’t on the agenda because there is no proposal to eliminate the play even though it was nearly banned in a close vote in 2025.
NFC coaches will speak to reporters on Monday, AFC coaches will do so on Tuesday and Commissioner Roger Goodell closes it out.
Here’s a look at the several topics:
The biggest proposal released by the NFL competition committee is a contingency if the league chooses to use replacement officials in case of a work stoppage as it did to start the 2012 season. The current collective bargaining agreement with the NFL and the NFL Referees Association expires on May 31.
The proposal would allow the replay center in New York to advise the on-field officials on any missed roughing the passer or intentional grounding penalty, as well as any act that would have led to an ejection had a penalty been called.
The NFL’s used of replacement officials for the first three weeks of the 2012 season resulted in several mistakes and wrong calls, including the disputed TD catch known as the “Fail Mary.”
“The negotiations with the officials have not gone as quickly as we would have wanted,” NFL executive Jeff Miller said. “We’ve made a number of proposals. We’re looking to improve the accountability and performance of the officials, and we just haven’t gotten to where we need to go. So, we’re going to play football this fall, and we’re going to need officials to do it. So, this is part of the preparation, and we felt compelled to make these sorts of decisions in anticipation of playing football in a different environment.”
There are several minor tweaks being proposed for the dynamic kickoff rule that is entering its third season.
“In 2024, we had 920 returns, and we had 25,000 return yards. In 2025, we had 2,076 returns, and we had 53,869 yards,” said Rich McKay, Atlanta Falcons CEO and Competition Committee Chair. “So that’s just a crazy change in the game, one that we’ve worked on for a long time. It’s a credit to the special teams coaches who’ve gotten together and really helped influence where we are on that play. It’s a credit to our head coaches for being able to be flexible enough to adopt and adapt, I should say, to the play. So, it’s a really good story.
“But we won’t just leave it alone. This year, we’re going to propose that we allow the 5-4-2 alignment. ... That really was the original alignment the special teams coaches wanted, but we were just taking our time and kind of being a little conservative, if you will, in how we allowed the alignment change. So, that’s kind of our process and how we got to where we are.”
The league has embraced advances in technology and artificial intelligence, including putting chips in footballs and using virtual measurements to determine first downs.
“The ability to use any modern technologies in media to advance the game on the field or with our fans, especially internationally, is coming at a really important time for the league’s growth,” Miller said.
The NFL is playing nine international games this season, including the first regular-season games in France and Australia. The goal is to eventually play 16 games abroad.
“It’s an incredibly important area of our business and growth and takes up a good amount of time during these meetings,” Miller said.
There were 35 concussions on kickoffs in 2025 compared to eight in 2024 mainly because moving the touchback to the 35-yard line resulted in 1,157 more returns. The kick return rate jumped to 74% from 33% last season, and it was the highest return rate in 15 years. Still, the overall injury rate is lower than previous kickoffs, when the coverage team had a running start compared to the standing start of the new rule.
“The goal was to have a fewer, lower injury rate on that play, and to make it seem more like a play from scrimmage, which has been accomplished by and large,” Miller said. “But we always knew that we were going to revisit this play as soon as we had more data on it, and with an almost 75% return rate this year, we have a whole lot of plays that we’ve been working through and a lot of people and we’ve been working really diligently on this because we think the results are heading into a really good direction. But we do need to address the injuries that we saw to the returner and to the tackler this year.”
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FILE - A football with the NFL shield logo rests on the turf during the second half of an NFL wild card playoff football game between the New England Patriots and the Los Angeles Chargers, Jan. 11, 2026, in Foxborough, Mass. (AP Photo/Greg M. Cooper, File)
Iranian forces “are waiting for the arrival of American troops on the ground to set them on fire and punish their regional partners forever,” the country's parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf said Sunday.
The comments came as regional powers plan to meet in Pakistan to discuss how to end the fighting in the Middle East as about 2,500 U.S. Marines arrived in the region and Iranian-backed Houthi rebels entered the monthlong war.
Qalibaf added: “Our firing continues. Our missiles are in place. Our determination and faith have increased.”
Pakistan said Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt will send top diplomats to Islamabad for talks. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said he and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian held “extensive discussions” on regional hostilities.
The war has threatened global supplies of oil and natural gas, sparked fertilizer shortages and disrupted air travel. Iran’s grip on the strategic Strait of Hormuz has shaken markets and prices.
The Houthis’ entry could further hurt global shipping if they again target vessels in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait off the Red Sea, through which about 12% of the world’s trade typically passes.
Here is the latest:
Iran’s parliament speaker on Sunday warned the U.S. against a ground invasion, threatening to set the American troops “on fire” and step up attacks on US allies, according to Iranian official media.
Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf said Iranian forces “are waiting for the arrival of American troops on the ground to set them on fire and punish their regional partners forever.”
He added: “Our firing continues. Our missiles are in place. Our determination and faith have increased.”
He described the U.S.’s 15-point plan which Pakistan passed to Iran last week as “their wishes” and said the Trump administration is attempting to do through the plan what it has failed to achieve by force.
“As long as the Americans seek Iran’s surrender, our response is clear: Far be it from us to accept humiliation,” he said.
U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran have driven up prices, darkened the outlook for the world economy, sent global stock markets reeling and forced developing countries to ration fuel and subsidize energy costs to protect their poorest.
Ongoing strikes and counterstrikes on Persian Gulf refineries, pipelines, gas fields and tanker terminals threaten to the prolong the global economic pain for months, even years.
“A week ago or certainly two weeks ago, I would have said: If the war stopped that day, the long-term implications would be pretty small,’’ said Christopher Knittel, an energy economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “But what we’re seeing is infrastructure actually being destroyed, which means the ramifications of this war are going to be long-lived.’’
Israel and the U.S. are “working in very close coordination” to respond after Yemen’s Houthi rebels said they had launched missiles toward Israeli targets, Israeli military spokesperson Col. Nadav Shoshani told reporters on Sunday.
He declined to provide details on operations against the Iran-backed group, which controls parts of Yemen, but said Israel had grown accustomed to confronting repeated attacks from the Houthis, who have for more than two years launched missiles and drones toward Israel and shipping targets in the Red Sea.
He also said Israeli military statements about nearing completion of top-priority strikes did not mean it was running out of overall targets.
“There are many more groups of targets and there are also many more targets when it comes to (ballistic missile) production,” he said.
Mourners gathered on Sunday in Choueifat, south of Beirut, for the funerals of three journalists killed by an Israeli airstrike.
Ali Shoeib, a correspondent with Hezbollah’s al-Manar TV, Fatima Ftouni, a reporter with the pan-Arab al-Mayadeen TV, and her brother Mohammed, a cameraman with the station, were killed in a strike on their car while covering the Israel-Hezbollah war in southern Lebanon on Saturday.
Israel’s military said it had targeted Shoeib, accusing him of being a Hezbollah intelligence operative, without providing evidence. Lebanese officials have condemned the strike as a war crime.
Mourners chanted, “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” as the bodies were buried in an empty lot converted into a temporary graveyard during the war.
“It’s not the first time our colleagues are killed,” said Mohammad Ali Badreddine, an SNG engineer with al-Mayadeen. “It’s a big loss... they were among the brightest and most professional people and also among the kindest people.”
Al Araby Television Network said an Israeli missile hit its office building in Iran’s capital, Tehran, forcing its live broadcast to stop, and left “extensive damage” to the office.
In a video posted on the channel’s social media accounts, one of its reporters showed the damage to the office. Equipment, furniture, and debris could be seen scattered on the ground.
Rubble and damaged vehicles down the street could be seen in the video.
The Defense Ministry said it intercepted and destroyed 10 drones attacking the oil-rich country Sunday morning.
Hakan Fidan met Sunday with Pakistan's Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar in Islamabad, with both sides calling for dialogue and diplomacy to ease tensions in the Middle East.
According to a statement from Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the two sides emphasized the need for de-escalation, diplomatic engagement and closer coordination to promote peace and stability in the region.
Kuwait says air defense systems intercepted four drones attacking the oil-rich country Sunday morning.
Radar systems at the Kuwait International Airport were damaged in a strike Saturday.
The Israeli military says residents in “relevant areas” have received warnings and air defenses are working to intercept the incoming fire.
The Israeli military says it struck targets in Tehran and other parts of the country.
Egypt’s top diplomat met Pakistan’s foreign minister in Islamabad Sunday to discuss efforts to help bring the United States and Iran back to the negotiating table and ease tensions in the region, officials said.
Ishaq Dar and Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty will hold bilateral talks on regional developments, according to a statement by Pakistan’s foreign ministry.
The Egyptian foreign ministry said that the meeting will discuss “the developments of the military escalation … and de-escalation efforts in the region."
During a stop in Qatar Saturday, Abdelatty said their efforts aim to establish a “direct dialogue” between the United States and Iran.
Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan arrived in Pakistan late Saturday. Saudi Arabia’s top diplomat is expected in Islamabad Sunday.
The Revolutionary Guard’s warning on Sunday said it would consider Israeli universities and branches of American universities in the region “legitimate targets,” state media reported.
“If the U.S. government wants its universities in the region spared, it should condemn the bombardment of (Iranian) universities by 12 o’clock Monday, March 30, in an official statement,” the Guard said in a statement, urging the evacuations of American and Israeli educational facilities and telling students and staff to stay at least one kilometer (0.6 miles) away.
The Guard also demanded the United States stop Israel from striking Iranian universities and research centers, which have been attacked in recent days. Israel’s military has acknowledged striking Iranian universities it says are connected to weapons development.
This is the first time Iran has threatened to strike Israeli and American universities.
The Israeli military identified the dead soldier as Sgt. Moshe Yitzchak Hacohen Katz, originally from New Haven, Connecticut.
Rabbi Yehoshua Hecht, a relative in Connecticut, spoke to Israel’s Army Radio station, describing his great nephew as a “very special young man” who was religious, a good student and “enjoyed every moment of life.”
Katz was killed in combat in southern Lebanon as Israel expands an invasion there.
Israel’s military said early Sunday that a soldier had been killed while three others were wounded in combat in southern Lebanon.
This brings the total to five Israeli soldiers killed in southern Lebanon since the conflict with Hezbollah reignited after the militant group fired rockets into Israel on March 2.
Two Israeli strikes early Sunday killed six Palestinians, including three police officers, in the Gaza Strip, hospital authorities said.
One strike hit a police checkpoint while another hit a group of people in the southern city of Khan Younis, according to Nasser hospital, which received the bodies.
The Israeli military didn’t immediately comment on the strikes.
The people killed were the latest fatalities among Palestinians in the coastal enclave since an October ceasefire deal attempted to halt a more than two-year war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
Interceptions and drone activity were heard for hours overnight Saturday across Irbil, the capital of the semiautonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq, including drones shot down while attempting to target the U.S. consulate and nearby bases.
AP journalists in the area reported nonstop loud explosions and saw at least one drone headed toward American facilities, in one of the most intense days of attacks since the war began.
Iran-aligned militias in Iraq have stepped up repeated drone and missile attacks on U.S. bases, including in Irbil.
In a statement on Saturday, the U.S. condemned what it called “despicable terrorist attacks” by Iran’s militant groups, saying the strikes on Kurdish regional President Nechirvan Barzani’s residence in Irbil earlier that day were “a direct assault on Iraq’s sovereignty, stability and unity.” The attack caused material damage but no casualties, and the residence was empty at the time.
Hezbollah's al-Manar TV correspondent Ali Shoeib, who was killed in an Israeli strike in Jezzine with other journalists on Saturday, March 28, 2026, speaks on his mobile phone in Marjayoun town, Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
A member of the Iranian Red Crescent Society stands at Hypercar, an auto service center, amid damages which according to the company's officials were caused by strikes on March 1, in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, March 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
People collect leaflets scattered on the ground at a site where a projectile carrying them hit an apartment building in Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, March 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
