Author Topic: NFL May Be Contemplating Major Rule Change That Could Alter the Game Dramatically  (Read 2783 times)

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Offline jmyrlefuller

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http://www.theblaze.com/stories/nfl-may-be-contemplating-major-rule-change-that-could-alter-the-game-dramatically/

by Liz Klimas
December 7, 2012

Could American football games someday never have the crescendoing ”ooooooaaaahhhh” from the fans of the home team as the kicker of the rival runs toward the pigskin in a kickoff play? They might not if the idea mentioned by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to do away with the kickoff comes to fruition.

How you might ask would the ball be returned to the other team? Goodell explained in a Time magazine profile by Sean Gregory:

[...] after a touchdown or field goal, instead of kicking off, a team would get the ball on its own 30-yard line, where it’s fourth and 15. The options are either to go for it and try to retain possession, or punt. If you go for it and fall short, the opposing team would take over with good field position. In essence, punts would replace kickoffs, and punts are less susceptible to violent collisions than kickoffs.

“The fact is,” Goodell, told Gregory of the idea first posed by Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Greg Schiano, “it’s a much different end of the play…It’s an off-the-wall idea. It’s different and makes you think differently. It did me.”

ESPN explained that Schiano, who coached at Rutgers University in 2010, witnessed player Eric LeGrand receiving a paralyzing injury a during a kickoff return:

Schiano told ESPN The Magazine in September that he believed kickoffs would eventually be eliminated from pro football. “I believe that day will come. Unfortunately, it will probably take more players being seriously hurt. But I think there’s another way to do this.”

The NFL has already instituted new kickoff rules to make that portion of the game safer. According to the NFL earlier this year, the new rules have already helped reduce the number of reported concussions in the league. Last season, the NFL moved kickoffs up to the 35-yard line (a five yard adjustment), which has increased the number of touchbacks.

In addition to reducing the risk of “catastrophic injury,” according to NBC Sports, such a move would also give punters, long snappers and gunners, as well as punt return teams, more time and value on the field. At the same time, though “kickoff specialists would become extinct, and return specialists who are much better returning kicks than punts would be far less valuable to the broader roster,” NBC Sports pointed out.

Just as not all fans were happy with the league moving up the kickoff a few yards, Gregory speculates the idea to eliminate it completely would not be well received either, as it is often an exciting part of the game that can occasionally yield long returns. And if teams start taking advantage of the opportunity, it could alter the game dramatically.

Related story:
How far will Roger Goodell go to protect the game he loves? by Sean Gregory, Time Magazine
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Offline evadR

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I have nothing against brain storming ..
but...
can this one.
Having said that, I do understand where he's coming from. Some of the hits are vicious as players get bigger, stronger and meaner.
I watched RG3 in the game against the Giants and everyone is worried about him running out of the pocket. Hell, his biggest hits were taken in the pocket.
The safest place for him is out of the pocket.
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Offline andy58-in-nh

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Why not just have the team that just scored simply punt from their own 30, instead of kick off? Or else simply place the ball in the possession of the other team at their own 20, 1st and 10.
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Offline massadvj

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Where is the evidence that punts are less susceptible to injury?  A punt receiver who decides to forego a fair catch can get creamed, whereas a kickoff receiver usually has plenty of time to catch the ball.

I thought Rush's take on this was hilarious:

RUSH: As far as the NFL kickoff, I have an alternative idea.  When I worked at the Kansas City Royals, the Chiefs were right across parking lot M.  M is a parking lot between Arrowhead Stadium and now Kauffman Stadium.  I had some friends over at it Chiefs PR office, and we played tough football with the Chiefs front office when baseball season ended every Thursday afternoon.

I'd go back and forth, and I saw some of the posters that the league -- now, this is early eighties, so it's a little time ago -- but I saw some of the posters the league sent out to help teams market and sell tickets.  And one of the posters, I'll never forget this, one of the posters said this:  "If you know that more people bowl in a week than attend NFL games in a season, then you know America."  Now, the NFL is trying to tell its member teams that there's a whole bunch of people out there to sell tickets to that you haven't marketed.  And bowling was held out as the -- and of course you know the Tomb of the Unknown Bowler is in Raytown, Missouri, not very far from Arrowhead Stadium.  I was once asked to place a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Bowler when I lived in Kansas City.  I never had a chance to go.

But here's my idea.  Instead of this fourth and 15 stuff, I mean you still got contact.  If you start the game fourth and 15 on the 30, you still punt.  Still contact.  Still a possibility for concussion and then murder and suicide.  We want to eliminate that.  So, I think what the NFL ought to do is put portable bowling alleys on the sideline at every game and then have the team captain, or whoever's the best bowler on the team, bowl one ball, and you get three points for every pin knocked down.  So the team captain goes out there and rolls one ball down the bowling lane.

If you knock down seven pins, you start at the 21 yard line.  No contact.  And therein you have given a whole new reason for bowlers to attend NFL games.  Imagine the excitement, something you couldn't capture at home even on high definition, the excitement of the team captain in full uniform bowling.  And after every touchdown the team captain would bowl again to find out where the team starts from.  And you've saved lives, you've saved countless lives with this, and if you bowl a strike, three points per pin, you're starting at the 30.  If you gutter ball, you're starting at your own, you know, one-inch line.  Maybe throw a gutter ball, safety, and you do it all over again, who knows.  But think of the lives saved, and think of the careers that will be extended.

Offline evadR

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"Where is the evidence that punts are less susceptible to injury?  A punt receiver who decides to forego a fair catch can get creamed, whereas a kickoff receiver usually has plenty of time to catch the ball."
Precisely.
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Offline jmyrlefuller

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There is one easier way to achieve the same effect: allow the kickoff specialists to kick the ball out of bounds, the same way the punters are allowed to. Punts are safer because punters are allowed-- and able-- to do coffin-corner kicks. A kickoff specialist is basically forced to keep the ball in bounds or else see it forced out to the 40-yard line.

This proposal just puts way too much power in the hands of an offense that, if sufficiently dominant, will be able to keep possession of the ball theoretically forever without ever letting their opponent touch it.
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Offline DCPatriot

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Why not just have the team that just scored simply punt from their own 30, instead of kick off? Or else simply place the ball in the possession of the other team at their own 20, 1st and 10.

What exactly is the difference to the kick-returner whether the ball is 'punted' from the 30.....or off a tee from the 35?

Are they suggesting that the kicker's teammates will start from a standing position at the moment the ball is "punted".....and that giving them a running start as it is in 'kickoffs' is what enhances the chances of injury to the kick-returner....er sorry, the poor bast*rd that is supposed to run it back?

I realize that football players are bigger and stronger today, but to eliminate the kick-off?

They might as well just chance it to 'touch' football and not have them wear pads or helmets.
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Offline jmyrlefuller

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Also, doesn't punting preclude an on-side kick when the team needs to get the ball back after scorung late in the game?

This idea simply doesn't pass muster...MUD
The plan says it would be one play in which they could punt or run a scrimmage play. However, they'd have to advance the ball 15 yards in that one play to get a first down. So instead of an onside kick, it'd be a Hail Mary.
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Offline mountaineer

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I didn't like it when basketball did away with jump balls and replaced them with the possession arrow, and I probably wouldn't like eliminating the kickoff. Harrumph.
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Offline Chieftain

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Also, doesn't punting preclude an on-side kick when the team needs to get the ball back after scorung late in the game?

This idea simply doesn't pass muster...MUD

Good point Mud, they might have to do away with the on-side kick too....the Law of Unintended Consequences at work.

The bottom line in my book is that these guys choose to play professional football, and they all know it isn't like playing poker or building cars at the GM plant.  They do take a risk but the players all do it with eyes wide open.  If they make a change like this one, the game will no longer be the football we all know and love.




Offline massadvj

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Good point Mud, they might have to do away with the on-side kick too....the Law of Unintended Consequences at work.

The bottom line in my book is that these guys choose to play professional football, and they all know it isn't like playing poker or building cars at the GM plant.  They do take a risk but the players all do it with eyes wide open.  If they make a change like this one, the game will no longer be the football we all know and love.

The guys I feel sorry for are the college players who never play in the NFL but suffer a lot of the same problems as they age.  I know a few personally.

Offline Allegra

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Why not just have the team that just scored simply punt from their own 30, instead of kick off? Or else simply place the ball in the possession of the other team at their own 20, 1st and 10.

I'd hate to lose those plays where a member of the special teams receives a kickoff and runs it all the way back for a score.  It doesn't happen often, but it happens and it's always a thrill.  (Unless it's being done against my team, of course.)
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