BOCA RATON, Fla. — The NFL owners and competition committee sent a stern warning to the players on Wednesday — behave during games, or else.

The owners passed a new rule for the 2016 season that will make it an automatic ejection if a player receives two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties in the same game. The types of fouls included in this new rule include abusive language toward players or officials, baiting, taunting, or throwing a punch, forearm or kick at an opponent.

The rule will not entail personal foul penalties that take place during the game, such as illegal hits to the head, launching, late hits, and so on. The infamous fracas between Giants receiver Odell Beckham and Panthers cornerback Josh Norman last season would not have led to an ejection for either player under the new rule.

The owners only approved this rule for one year to see if there are unintended consequences. Competition committee chairman Rich McKay, the president of the Falcons, said the NFL had 75 unsportsmanlike conduct penalties in 2015. But only two players would have been ejected under the new rule — Chargers safety Jahleel Addaein Week 8 against the Ravens and Titans outside linebacker Brian Orakpoin Week 9 against the Saints.

“We felt like we needed a rule to make sure that the players are held accountable to what we expect them to do and how we expect them to conduct themselves,’’ McKay said. “We amended it to make it for one year only. We heard some of the coaches and some of their concerns yesterday about the rule and how the rule would be used, so we wanted to amend it and make it for one year.’’

The owners passed a handful of other rules and bylaws on Wednesday as they wrapped up the three-day NFL owners meetings at the Boca Raton Resort.

The owners approved moving touchbacks after kickoffs to the 25-yard line, but just for one year. McKay said the league believes the new rule will cut down on the number of kickoff returns — plays in which there is a higher incidence of injury — but is mindful that kickers might instead kick shorter and hope to pin the return team inside the 25-yard line.

“We passed moving the touchback to the 25, which we do think has a safety element to it,’’ McKay said. “We passed that also for one year because we do want to see if it changes the numbers and how it impacts the game, because there is that thought that there will be some more short kicks. We’ll see.’’

The NFL also tweaked the rule on the Injured Reserve — Designated to Return rule. Instead of designating the player as “IR-Return’’ as soon as he is injured, teams can now wait until six weeks have lapsed, and designate the player on the day he is set to return to practice. Otherwise the rule remains the same — a player must sit out of practice for at least six weeks, and cannot play in a game for eight weeks.

There were several proposals pertaining to expanding the use of instant replay and increasing the number of coaches challenges, and almost all of them were rejected. The Ravens’ suggestion — that instead of having a long list of plays that can be reviewed by instant replay, the NFL should have one short list that cannot be reviewed — was tabled until the next owners meeting in May.

“We think there’s merit to the proposal, and we think it’s something we want to work on,’’ McKay said.

The NFL also rejected the Ravens’ proposal to have offensive linemen who declare themselves as eligible receivers wear a special vest on top of their jersey with the number of an eligible player.

CTE ‘consistent’

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell tried to downplay the statement made by NFL executive Jeff Miller last week that there is “certainly’’ a link between football and the brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

Goodell said Miller, the NFL’s senior vice president for health and safety policy, was only echoing what the NFL has stated about football and brain injuries.

“We think the statements that have been made through Jeff Miller and others have been consistent with our position over the years,’’ Goodell said. “A lot of the research is still in its infancy, but we’re trying to find ways to accelerate that, and that’s part of what we’re doing in investing in additional research this week.’’

Destination: China?

Goodell confirmed the NFL hopes to hold a regular-season game in China, possibly as soon as the 2018 season. The NFL will hold regular-season games in London and Mexico City this year, and now hope to expand to Asia, a market the NFL has coveted for several years.

Part of the appeal of hosting games in London is that the time difference allows football fans in China to watch games on Sunday night instead of early Monday morning.

“The size and the influence of China in the global marketplace is obviously something that you can’t ignore,’’ Goodell said. “We know we have lots of fans over there, and more importantly, potential fans over there. So we’ve had a number of activities that are designed to increase the popularity of our game over there, to give them a better sense of our game, and a regular-season game has proven to be a real driver to that type of activity.’’

The Rams were mentioned as one team willing to give up a home game to play in China, but Goodell said multiple teams have shown interest.

Rams on ‘Knocks’

The Rams are this year’s team that will be chronicled by the HBO/NFL Films series “Hard Knocks’’ during training camp. The five-episode series will follow the Rams as they return to Los Angeles for the first time in 22 years.

Ben Volin can be reached at ben.volin@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @BenVolin