TIME sat in on meeting between Goodell and Rich McKay, head of the NFL's powerful competition committee. Goodell brought up a proposal promoted by Greg Schiano, coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers: 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. http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-s...ng-kickoffs-player-safety-164839047--nfl.html
Another thing they should do is get rid of the extra point. Just give teams a free point like in NFL blitz or let them try for the two point conversion.
I could definitely do without the extra point. But that is when the NFL squeezes in commercials. score, commercials, extra point, commercials, kickoff, commericals..... The pace would be better of a TD was worth 7 and there was an option for a 1pt converstion.
Another reason to hate Schiano. What an asshole. A coach brings it to someone attention to help avoid violent contact, but refuses to let the other team take a knee without slamming into the line?
Am I wrong, or do not many players get hurt on kickoffs? Also, kickoffs, to me, are exciting plays. Such an opportunity for a score or maybe fumble. Lots of anticipation. I get what they're trying to do but to me it takes too much away from the game.
There's approximately a 2% injury rate on kickoffs (ie, an injury occurs on 2% of kickoffs); it's about 1.3% on punts. Based on last year's figures, there are about 8 scoring plays per game; add in the beginning of each half, and that's 10 kickoffs per game. 32 teams, 8 home games each--about 2,560 kickoffs in one regular season. At 2%, that's an estimated 51 injuries per year on kickoffs. If they were all punts, at 1.3%, that would be 33 injuries per year. So essentially, this rule change would eliminate approximately one player injury per week.
Wouldn't the punts capture a certain amount of that same anticipation? I find punts more interesting than kickoffs, in terms of the kicks themselves. Way more variability in kick direction, quality, and placement, and far fewer touchbacks. The downside would be that the receiving team would generally not be in as good position to break a huge return, since they would have to protect against the fake, but it seems to me that teams would adapt and work out strategies to maintain the possibility of good returns while protecting against first downs. The positioning problem would also be offset somewhat by the shorter range of the punt... I dunno -- I think it's a really interesting suggestion.
