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NFL May Be Contemplating Major Rule Change That Could Alter the Game Dramatically

Dec. 6, 2012 2:30pm Liz Klimas

Commissioner Roger Goodell Says the NFL Is Considering a Proposal to Eliminate the Kickoff in Time Magazine Interview

Denver Broncos kick off to the San Diego Chargers in an NFL football game in Denver in 2011. (Photo: AP/Jack Dempsey, File)

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.”

New England Patriots kick off against the New York Giants in an NFL football game in Foxborough, Mass., in 2011. (Photo: AP/Michael Dwyer, File)

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.”

Former Rutgers football player Eric LeGrand, right, and his mother Karen LeGrand pictured in 2011. (Photo: AP/Mel Evans, File)

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.

Indianapolis Colts wide receiver Pierre Garcon (85) is hit by Cincinnati Bengals linebacker Dan Skuta (51) on a kickoff during the fourth quarter of an NFL football game in 2010. (Photo: AP/Darron Cummings)

Tennessee Titans kick returner Marc Mariani (83) gets set to receive the opening kickoff against the Arizona Cardinals in the first quarter of an NFL football preseason game this year. (Photo: AP/Joe Howell)

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.

Let us know what you think about this proposal by taking our poll:

Read more of Gregory’s in-depth profile of Goodell in Time magazine here.

Featured image via AP

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Comments (244)

Colin Maynerdson III
Posted on December 6, 2012 at 4:48pm
Why don’t we just dress the players in ballerina outfits and have them prance around and perform Swan Lake after touchdowns?

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DEFCON4
Posted on December 6, 2012 at 4:46pm
The NFL Players Union will never allow this to happen. The elimination of union jobs will be a
“deal-breaker” when this comes to pass. The owners might be o kay with a reduction in rosters/
pay-roll, the union not as much.

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dont_drive_slow_in_the_left_lane_obliviot
Posted on December 6, 2012 at 4:39pm
Bob Costas will give a lecture at next halftime on how kickoffs should be banned.

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saved4ever
Posted on December 6, 2012 at 4:37pm
Goodell shoudl be impeached or fired! His suggestion is totally assinine! Roger may be smoking too many blunts!

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PB2GOD
Posted on December 6, 2012 at 4:25pm
Get rid of the hard plastic in the pads and put on a leather helmet without a face-guard. Can we not learn from Australia?

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burnteye86
Posted on December 6, 2012 at 4:25pm
If you’re going to change it just let them start from their own 20 with 1st and 10. That’s about where they end up after a kick off anyway.

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SquidVetOhio
Posted on December 6, 2012 at 4:23pm
If you don’t want to get hurt. Don’t play football.

This is stupid. Get defense contractors to make the players helmets. I guarantee you they would make a helmet that is 100 times safer than the crap they use now.

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redfish52
Posted on December 6, 2012 at 4:21pm
I had already decided to never watch another NFL Game after the Costas speech..(to be truthful…I never watched it that much anyway..never understood how some of the idiots that watch it could let it consume their lives like they do…crazy). I really wish it would all go pay per view so that something interesting like Honey Boo Boo could take its place…hee…hee.

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Tri-ox
Posted on December 6, 2012 at 4:13pm
I’m not sure that the players really need to be on the field at all – wouldn’t it be safer and less violent if they just sat at home and played virtually, via their iPads?

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Larry E
Posted on December 6, 2012 at 4:12pm
Today Rush had an even better idea: the team captains will do a little on field bowling, and thusly avoid all that nasty bodily contact thereby making the game safe for even 12 year old girls who can bowl. I gave up watching NFL and most college football a long time ago after coming to the conclusion that I had better ways to blow 3 or more hours than to spend it watching a bunch of oversized morons stand around for twice as long as they did anything. Now I watch soccer which somehow manages to put 90 minutes of play into less than 2 hours including half time. More entertaining too.

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Texas Hills Patriot
Posted on December 6, 2012 at 4:00pm
So, let me get this straight. Maybe I’m missing something here, but you not only score, but you have the opportunity of retaining possession. Theoretically, the team that gets the ball first, could maintain possession for the entire half. Any problem here?

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- Beachmastermax
  Posted on December 6, 2012 at 4:10pm
  So much for teams that concentrate on the run and clock control.
  
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ColoradoMaverick
Posted on December 6, 2012 at 3:55pm
You know, football is a rough game. That’s the appeal. yes, it’s violent and dangerous, that’s the appeal. The players get paid big money to take a risk, that’s the appeal. When bull riders started wearing helmets, it somehow lost the dangerous appeal that it had before and the sport suffers. I don’t want to see players get permanent injuries and welcome any reasonable safety improvements, but to continually eliminate the types of plays fans pay big bucks to see, and to sue the NFL for workers comp injuries after many years of intended abuse to their own bodies, the players, backed by the unions will destroy the sport as we know it but like they destroy everything else they touch.

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Codger
Posted on December 6, 2012 at 3:55pm
Put a 12 inch chain between their ankles so they can’t run so fast or kick so far. LOL

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chas2c
Posted on December 6, 2012 at 3:55pm
sounds like a Michelle Obamu idea.

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avery45
Posted on December 6, 2012 at 3:53pm
NFL. Nanny Football League. Collision is part of the game. Instead of spending money on new, not needed stadiums, why don’t they spend it on better equipment.

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Ross
Posted on December 6, 2012 at 3:51pm
Why don’t they just play flag football or two below?

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Danielle Ohliger
Posted on December 6, 2012 at 3:50pm
Welcome to the Powderpuff NFL — This is when the true America has been transformed! I remember Glenn Beck saying on the radio that “…the day football games are replaced by soccer, we know the country has been transformed…” Didn’t Goodell say last year that the NFL is based on a socialized economic system, well he has transformed it all together now! This is where we should go back to playing “old fashioned football” without the tech uniforms and helmets and stop making football players into brands and celebrities!

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Desertlakesflying
Posted on December 6, 2012 at 3:47pm
Time for Roger to RESIGN!

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jfriedri
Posted on December 6, 2012 at 3:45pm
Let’s attach strips of cloth to the wastes of the players and say they are down when they take one of the strips of cloth away… oh wait.. that’s FLAG football.

Want to reduce injury? Go back to playing on REAL TURF!

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Ghandi was a Republican
Posted on December 6, 2012 at 3:45pm
Just split all the points between both teams and give them all a participation trophy. Nobody gets hurt, The top 32 fans in the stands who drink the most beer go to the super bowl.

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Deliverance_from_the_left_now
Posted on December 6, 2012 at 3:43pm
Well the country is going to hell…why not my favorit sport too. Lets just play flag football at this point! Please tell me the end of the world is coming soon!!!

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jfriedri
Posted on December 6, 2012 at 3:42pm
I am sick and tired of all the “rule changes” in the NFL. I frankly don’t see how these refs can keep them all straight. With all of their “pocket rules” (where is the pocket?) and defenders can’t touch receivers etc.. I wish they would just go back to the 1970′s rules … you don’t want to get injured?? Well then don’t play the damn game!

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dovndce
Posted on December 6, 2012 at 3:42pm
NFL head Goodell is a friggin’ pansy, why not have all players dress is pastels, let them skip and prance down the field? I’ll stick to ice hockey, a real man’s sport.

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ibfishn
Posted on December 6, 2012 at 3:39pm
Gee that will free up allot of my time. I AM ABOUT DONE WITH FOOTBALL AND ALL THE WHINING AND CRYING BY THE MILLIONAIRES. THE GAME IS ABOUT RUINED AND FOR ME THAT WOULD DO IT.

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PuntoVistaSur
Posted on December 6, 2012 at 3:36pm
Want to stop injuries…play it more like rugby – tough, man-to-man, bloody, and little to no equipment as armor. They can still smash mouth but no helmets as “spears”, no shoulder pads to protect wussy bodies and primadonnas – good old fashioned grit.

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- GuruMeditation
  Posted on December 6, 2012 at 4:11pm
  Works for me.
  
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