Kicked Off

I’m all for it. Not for player safety, but for a more selfish reason. Not having to either kickoff or cover kickoffs would do nothing but substantially improve our program.

Until the Victor Ike rebellion, we had essentially stopped returning kicks for about 20 years.

Let’s ditch kickoffs, field goals and extra points altogether. Then we can just call it Ball.

i love you nobis, you magnificent bastard. What about punts? P for K (P)?

The more we learn about brain science, the more football is going to have to fundamentally change. By 2020, my guess is we’ll barely be able to recognize it.

I barely recognized it last year. (rimshot)

It would increase the rate of awesome comebacks (and it would be done with skill instead of luck like onside kicks). I’d vote for it if it was brought up.

It would put a lot of NFL players out of work. No need to carry all those special teamers willing to risk life and limb for a couple hundred thousand a year.

It makes some sense from a player safety perspective, but if you moved the kickoff back to the 40 most guys could kick it out of the endzone and reduce the big hits. Not a great compromise but it wouldn’t alter the game as much.

I don’t think punt coverage is inherently safer than kickoff coverage.

For the sake of a late-game comeback, sure, give the team the option of the “onside” play. Otherwise, I’d just put the ball on the “receiving” team’s 30/25/20, whatever’s deemed fair.

Jerry, it won’t put anyone out of work other than kickers and punters. Due to the 53(85)-man roster limit, most special teamers double as backups. Removing kickoffs would just remove the roles of those players, but they are still necessary as backups.

Bob, kickoffs are inherently more dangerous because the coverage team has a running start from 60 yards before first contact, and that start is on the kick. Punting has 2 gunners; kickoffs have 10.

I’d imagine the high school ranks will innovate before the NCAA gets around to it. Parents of players have a lot more sway there, and they’re the ones most concerned about catastrophic injury. Maybe one of them will come up with a neat kickoff-like thingy that doesn’t so much resemble a gladiator version of smear-the-queer.

How about this (just pulling sh*t out of my ass here); add two rules, (a) that players on returning squad cannot hold the ball longer than three seconds, and (b) that if the ballcarrier holds on too long or gets tackled, or if the ball hits the ground or changes possession, it’s immediately dead and the returning squad has the ball at the last point they had possession. You’d lose the possibility of a turnover but since the target is always changing you’d have a lot less collisions at full speed and it’d look like a crazy rugby scrum.

…in the name of player safety….

Movie or song title, imo.

Stop! In the name of Player Safety!
Beeee-fore you’re brain dead!
Stop! In the name of Player Safety!
You heard what Mama said…

… and it goes on…

In a few years, teams battle each other from the safety of their own auditoria, safely linked via high-speed, high-def internet, with avatars clashing on the big screen, wielding twenty-sided dice and mysterious incantations…

I really like it. I think having the O on the field for a 4th and 15 will create more exciting finishes in games than onside kicks.

There are more subtle ways of reducing injuries. Before changing the game, shouldn’t the administrators look at any of the following:

reducing gameday roster sizes

reducing the time between plays – more plays requires more cardio fitness and/or smaller players

reducing protective padding – rugby (admittedly a very different game) players have cauliflower ears but very few concussions

removing facemasks

moving kickoff mark forward / backward

penalising players that don’t wrap up in the tackle

limiting the distance that the kicker stand away from the LOS

I would guess most of these guys are at top speed well before they reach 60 yards. If the logic is that kick-offs allow the defenders to get too much momentum going then punt returns, safety and corner blitzes, and defenders coming across the field to knock a running back or receiver out of bounds would all have to be outlawed. Basically they would have to decide how many steps a defender could take before making a hit.

I never want to see anyone get injured in a game, but I also expect our defense to bring the wood every play. I also want to see Little Ship take it to the house multiple times over the next four (to seven) years. Improve the equipment, improve the coaching, but don’t change the game.

I hear 100% of catastrophic football injuries take place while practicing or playing football. Let’s just flip a coin and declare a winner.

That’s tongue in cheek, of course, but don’t think there aren’t folks out there who want to use the “player safety” issue to get rid of the sport altogether. Obviously the players and coaches talking about it aren’t in that category, but if they become too strident about it those types will slide in right behind them and parrot their arguments to try and hurt the game.

Are his percentage all kickoff are just those returned? What is the break down of injuries percentages on touch backs v. returned kicks?

The NFL has already started this year with moving the kick-off up. Even though most will be in the end zone, the league needs the kick-off so they can wrap their double time-out commercials around them.

Ha. Kick off from the 50 or opposing 40 and make every kick an onside kick.

No.