NFL approves communicator for D

(UPDATED) PALM BEACH, Fla. -- NFL owners voted 25-7 late this morning to approve a resolution to allow a communication device for a defensive player.

Each offensive and defensive team is now permitted to have one player on the field with a speaker in his helmet. The quarterback wears it for the offense. Now the defense will have one, as well as a backup helmet for another player. The Bengals supported the measure.

"It gives a degree of equity to the defense," Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis said. "You're still going to have to be prepared to signal in calls. It might enable some young players do more, earlier.

“We have had to play a lot of young linebackers. It will help young players be a more integral part of the defense (because they can be instructed from sideline)."

At the AFC Coaches' Breakfast this morning, Lewis said he was for the device: "I think the defensive helmet will be a good addition to the game. It will eliminate some things -- you still will have to have the ability to signal defenses. You're going to have to be prepared because there might be a timing issue with it."

Which Bengals defender would wear it?

"I don't know who's out there. It's going to be a three-down player," he said. "I think it probably be a linebacker or safety. Another guy who could handle it is Robert Geathers, who has been trained as a linebacker. He is a three-down player. We will have some flexibility that way. It could be a safety. A linebacker."

Later in the morning, owners agreed to table until their May meeting the Kansas City proposal to prohibit hair from covering a player's nameplate and numeral on his jersey. Lewis, a member of the competition committee, which studies and proposes rules changes, said the committee wanted more input from the NFL Players Association.

These two measures were the only ones discussed and voted on this morning in the general session in which competitive committee recommendations were reported.