Time for the NFL to eliminate the kickoff

Proposal trying to make NFL kickoffs ‘more of a punt play’

http://www.theredzone.org/Blog-Description/EntryId/69842/Proposal-trying-to-make-NFL-kickoffs–more-of-a-punt-play-

The NFL is finalizing a proposal to make significant changes to the kickoff, intensifying the tweaks of recent years in what might be a final attempt to salvage the most dangerous play in football, Kevin Seifert of ESPN reports.

The adjustments — prompted largely by a group of special teams coaches who traveled to a Wednesday meeting at league headquarters — are designed to make the kickoff “much more of a punt play,” according to competition committee chairman Rich McKay. The kickoff will remain on a “short leash,” according to committee member and Green Bay Packers president/CEO Mark Murphy, but it appears to have survived for at least another year.

The proposed changes will be written into a formal document by next week and presented to owners for approval during their May 21-23 meetings in Atlanta. They include:

* Coverage teams would lose the 5-yard head start they previously had;

* Five players would need to be aligned on each side of the kicker;

* All wedge blocks, including two-man double teams, would be eliminated;

* Eight of the 11 return team members would be lined up within 15 yards of the restraining line, and blocking would be prohibited within those 15 yards;

* There would be no pre-kick motion.

The governing idea was to reduce the space and speed of collisions that have historically occurred on kickoffs.

“With the old rule, you had guys running at each other,” said Kansas City Chiefs special-teams coordinator Dave Toub, one of nine current special teams coaches in the room for the discussion. “Now, you’ll have guys running with each other down the field. That makes a big difference … because the distance between the two of them are closer. The distance between the front line and the kickoff return team is so tight that when they run down the field, it’s a lot like a punt. They’re running together. You’re pushing people on the side and you don’t have those big collisions. That was the main thing in our proposal.”

The competition committee discarded some of the coaches’ more radical proposals, including a rule that would place all fair-caught kickoffs at the 25-yard line. But league executives in attendance were generally encouraged by the depth of the proposed changes. Murphy, who announced in March that the kickoff would be eliminated if it could not be made safer, said he is “cautiously optimistic” about the new direction.

“I give these coaches credit,” Murphy said. “To me this was a breakthrough, that they’re really looking at it to make it safer.”