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Kickoff rule change, everything is a touchback inside the 25

Are there really that many injuries on kickoffs?

It’s football for Christ’s sake. It’s a physical contact sport that one chooses to play
 
So unless you have KR specialist who is lights out, game plan is if you field anything inside the 10 yard line, just take the knee.

Not crazy about this proposal

The other proposed change is the blocking below the waist rule. This new rule has the potential to change Paul Johnson's philosophy of chop blocks to be regulated to the same heap pile of the wing T.
 
So unless you have KR specialist who is lights out, game plan is if you field anything inside the 10 yard line, just take the knee.

Not crazy about this proposal

The other proposed change is the blocking below the waist rule. This new rule has the potential to change Paul Johnson's philosophy of chop blocks to be regulated to the same heap pile of the wing T.
It is still stupid but the proposal is that you would have to fair catch it, not just take a knee.
 
"The committee made the proposal to address player safety on the kickoff and to address tactics that attempt to pin the receiving team close to its goal line. All other aspects of the kickoff play will remain the same."

How dare you try to pin your opponent close to it's goal line so they will have to go the length of the field to score! Why would a coach ever think of doing that to his opponent?
 
Actually, I want a different change and would be more strategic. If a kicker kicks the ball out of the end zone, the ball comes to the 30 or 35 yd line. If the kicker kicks into the end zone and the returner takes a knee, the ball comes to the 20 yd line. That brings more strategy into the kicking game.
 
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Sounds like some crackpot proposal if it's real. If that was the rule, might as well just spot the ball at the 25.
Another dumbass rule by a bunch of dumbass people that need to be replaced, they are a joke of an organization and when are they going to start investigating football like they are doing in basketball? The first place needs to be in Pickens County but they are probably paid off and it will never happen.
 
Are there really that many injuries on kickoffs?

It’s football for Christ’s sake. It’s a physical contact sport that one chooses to play

I would love to see some actual stats on when injuries occur. I'm willing to bet at least 75% of concussions occur on passing plays, but neither the NCAA nor the NFL will do anything to discourage passing. So they make stupid rules change like this to make it look like they're trying to make the game safer, but they are really doing very little.
 
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Dumb rule IMO. Takes part of the strategy that is football as far as field position and pinning your opponent back against their own end zone.
 
WE will still have guys running it out of the end zone.

I never understood why we EVER ran one out. Maybe if you’re behind late you gamble on a good return. The amount of times we ended up on the 17 yard line was astounding.

One reason why: Deebo Samuel!!!
 
Football in the future will be 7 on 7 and you can bank on that. Mammas don’t want their babies to grow up with brain damage.
 
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I liked the rule at first glance but after reading other's opinions maybe not such a good idea. Players should be protected as much as possible especially from concussions which lead to problems with the brain after FB careers and tackles should not be allowed below the knee under any circumstances.
 
One reason why: Deebo Samuel!!!

With him yes!!!
99% of our other guys back there.... coach should tell them to stand on the goal line. If it goes over their head,jog back to the bench.
1st and 10 on the 25 with no chance of a fumble.
 
I realize the feeling that something needs to be done to protect players from harsh contact and injury, but I can’t see basically eliminating a key strategy such as kickoffs. If they want to change it to lessen contact fine. But why give the receiving team and advantage of spotting the ball at the 25? Might as well not kick it at all and just start drives from the 25. That’ll be an excitement killer and be as much fun to watch as a game of horseshoes!

If they’re gonna start making sissie changes might as well go ahead and eliminate tackling and contact altogether and go to flag football.
Or maybe use 2 hand touch on kickoffs like teams do in spring games.

Or how about we strap tires to players waist so they can’t collide and make shoulder pads with beach ball size helmets attached so if they bump they bounce off of each other.

Or just let them start playing in high heels and skirts :eek::rolleyes:

Edit: The part that I really don’t like is spotting the ball at the 25. What they should do is if a returner elects to fair catch a kick-off inside the 10 yard line is spot the ball at the 15. If it is outside the 10 yard line field the damn ball where he catches it. Just can’t see a player fair catching the ball at the 1 yard line and getting 24 free yards for it, etc.
 
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With him yes!!!
99% of our other guys back there.... coach should tell them to stand on the goal line. If it goes over their head,jog back to the bench.
1st and 10 on the 25 with no chance of a fumble.
No, if you leave a kickoff on the ground in the end zone you give up a TD.
 
So unless you have KR specialist who is lights out, game plan is if you field anything inside the 10 yard line, just take the knee.

Not crazy about this proposal

The other proposed change is the blocking below the waist rule. This new rule has the potential to change Paul Johnson's philosophy of chop blocks to be regulated to the same heap pile of the wing T.
I think some of yall missed the part where it was a FAIR CATCH that triggers the touch back... In other words it is still completely up to the return guy to trigger a fair catch. Most seem to be acting like the rule would make any kick inside the 25 automatically a touch back! This is not such a big change... just makes it more like punts where a guy can signal fair catch anywhere on the field.

Also, the goal of having fewer returns is not just about injuries, they are trying to find ways to speed the game up and eliminating kickoffs altogether has been proposed... Think about it- what a Waste of fn time!! Team scores, kick the extra point, go to commercial... come back from commercial, show more replays of the score... then they run a generally meaningless play that about 65% or more of the time results in a touchback, and after a max oh 30 seconds or so of action, we get yet another commercial break... Even for non-tv games the aligning for the kickoff, cycling players on and back off the field, then back on again to play offense and defense... is a huge waste of time!

Sure, there is the occasional exciting kickoff return, Deebo’s From this past season being the examples, right? And what did that get us? Beyond a couple scores and highlights, it lead to two empty statistical possessions for the offense! Now, “stats don’t mean a damn thing”, or “the only stat that matters is the W/L record”... I get that... except STATS DO MATTER! To everyone! How many of you were on here all year calling for our OC’s head, despite the fact WE WERE WINNING GAMES!?!.... How many times did you hear national pundits rating our early season wins as flukes because the other team had rung up more offensive yardage than us? Yeah... So STATS MATTER. Just ask Roper.... he is looking for a job after an overachieving 9 win season because the damn stats didn’t look good on offense! So, removing that STs yardage, if it had been applied to our offense instead 150-200 or more yards from those two TD runs alone, not to mention all the other run backs we had that went past the 20 on drives that we scored on)... would have helped those stats look better... Not saying he keeps his job/ or that he should have, but maybe he does. Maybe we wind up more nationally prominent/ nationally ranked... Point being if SO MUCH is going to be taken from stats- coaches being fired, rankings of teams potentially impacted... Why are we allowing this anomaly - that nobody takes the time to account for- to persist? Toss in the high rate of injuries on these plays because guys are running FULL SPEED in opposite directions before crashing into each other (vs normal plays where there is max a few yards between players and limited opposing speed/force on most impacts), and... Yeah, STs plays in general -beyond extra points or field goals- are probably not going to exist much longer.
 
I think some of yall missed the part where it was a FAIR CATCH that triggers the touch back... In other words it is still completely up to the return guy to trigger a fair catch. Most seem to be acting like the rule would make any kick inside the 25 is automatically a touch back! This is not such a big change... just makes it more like punts where a guy can signal fair catch anywhere on the field.

Also, the goal of having fewer returns is not just about injuries, they are trying to find ways to speed the game up and eliminating kickoffs altogether has been proposed... Think about it- what a Waste of fn time!! Team scores, kick the extra point, go to commercial... come back from commercial, show more replays of the score... then they run a generally meaningless play that about 65% or more of the time results in a touchback, and after a max oh 30 seconds or so of action, we get yet another commercial break... Even for non-tv games the aligning for the kickoff, cycling players on and back off the field, then back on again to play offense and defense... is a huge waste of time!

Sure, there is the occasional exciting kickoff return, Deebo’s From this past season being the examples, right? And what did that get us? Beyond a couple scores and highlights, it lead to two empty statistical possessions for the offense! Now, “stats don’t mean a damn thing”, or “the only stat that matters is the W/L record”... I get that... except STATS DO MATTER! To everyone! How many of you were on here all year calling for our OC’s head, despite the fact WE WERE WINNING GAMES!?!.... How many times did you hear national pundits rating our early season wins as flukes because the other team had rung up more offensive yardage than us? Yeah... So STATS MATTER. Just ask Roper.... he is looking for a job after an overachieving 9 win season because the damn stats didn’t look good on offense! So, removing that STs yardage, if it had been applied to our offense instead 150-200 or more yards from those two TD runs alone, not to mention all the other run backs we had that went past the 20 on drives that we scored on)... would have helped those stats look better... Not saying he keeps his job/ or that he should have, but maybe he does. Maybe we wind up more nationally prominent/ nationally ranked... Point being if SO MUCH is going to be taken from stats- coaches being fired, rankings of teams potentially impacted... Why are we allowing this anomaly to persist? Toss in the high rate of injuries on these plays because guys are running FULL SPEED in opposite directions before crashing into each other, and... Yeah, STs plays in general beyond extra points... probably not going to exist much longer.
Can you summarize this in like 3 sentences? Too long
 
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Ridiculous. So Deebo would have had 0 kickoff returns for TD`s if that asinine rule was in place.
 
I think some of yall missed the part where it was a FAIR CATCH that triggers the touch back... In other words it is still completely up to the return guy to trigger a fair catch. Most seem to be acting like the rule would make any kick inside the 25 automatically a touch back! This is not such a big change... just makes it more like punts where a guy can signal fair catch anywhere on the field.

Also, the goal of having fewer returns is not just about injuries, they are trying to find ways to speed the game up and eliminating kickoffs altogether has been proposed... Think about it- what a Waste of fn time!! Team scores, kick the extra point, go to commercial... come back from commercial, show more replays of the score... then they run a generally meaningless play that about 65% or more of the time results in a touchback, and after a max oh 30 seconds or so of action, we get yet another commercial break... Even for non-tv games the aligning for the kickoff, cycling players on and back off the field, then back on again to play offense and defense... is a huge waste of time!

Sure, there is the occasional exciting kickoff return, Deebo’s From this past season being the examples, right? And what did that get us? Beyond a couple scores and highlights, it lead to two empty statistical possessions for the offense! Now, “stats don’t mean a damn thing”, or “the only stat that matters is the W/L record”... I get that... except STATS DO MATTER! To everyone! How many of you were on here all year calling for our OC’s head, despite the fact WE WERE WINNING GAMES!?!.... How many times did you hear national pundits rating our early season wins as flukes because the other team had rung up more offensive yardage than us? Yeah... So STATS MATTER. Just ask Roper.... he is looking for a job after an overachieving 9 win season because the damn stats didn’t look good on offense! So, removing that STs yardage, if it had been applied to our offense instead 150-200 or more yards from those two TD runs alone, not to mention all the other run backs we had that went past the 20 on drives that we scored on)... would have helped those stats look better... Not saying he keeps his job/ or that he should have, but maybe he does. Maybe we wind up more nationally prominent/ nationally ranked... Point being if SO MUCH is going to be taken from stats- coaches being fired, rankings of teams potentially impacted... Why are we allowing this anomaly - that nobody takes the time to account for- to persist? Toss in the high rate of injuries on these plays because guys are running FULL SPEED in opposite directions before crashing into each other (vs normal plays where there is max a few yards between players and limited opposing speed/force on most impacts), and... Yeah, STs plays in general -beyond extra points or field goals- are probably not going to exist much longer.

You mention more yards being taken from the kickoffs and added to the offense, but that's assuming the offense doesn't go three and out. Roper losing his job, yet Special Team coaches may lose their jobs. Injuries where people run into each other at full speed...the game is a contact sport. And commercials....we still go to commercial after touchbacks because for some reason it's always a commercial after a change in possession. Some channels run the commercials while the game is still on-going. Channels could probably go the fox sports way with soccer...where they zoom out on the action and run their sponsors across the bottom of the screen. Or if you remember the old ESPN score updates at 25 and 55 after the hour?

Someone hinted at it earlier...after a while, we will be playing spring-like football on Saturday's. Yes, fans like offense...however fans like big plays in general. What is more of a big play than instantly grabbing momentum back on a kickoff return td, lateral plays, or just returning back into the opponent's side of the field. I know you say it's based on the player calling a fair catch, but coaches will have strategies for it also. Just like the ten second run-off or taking five yard penalties to create room for punts. I think some of these rules are just created to be exploited.
 
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Haven't watched the Pro Bowl in years. That's not a good sign.

I watched 5 to 10 minutes.

Watch closely. Very little hitting by anyone. Not taking ball carriers to the ground in most cases. It's worse than a spring game. This will be millennial soccer mom football (at the very least) in the not too distant future.

 
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I think some of yall missed the part where it was a FAIR CATCH that triggers the touch back... In other words it is still completely up to the return guy to trigger a fair catch. Most seem to be acting like the rule would make any kick inside the 25 automatically a touch back! This is not such a big change... just makes it more like punts where a guy can signal fair catch anywhere on the field.

You should have stopped here. You make good points but you fail to see why people have a problem with the rule. There will be teams fair catching the ball at the 1 and getting the ball at the 25, so essentially kickoffs will be an automatic touchback.

Also, the goal of having fewer returns is not just about injuries, they are trying to find ways to speed the game up and eliminating kickoffs altogether has been proposed... Think about it- what a Waste of fn time!! Team scores, kick the extra point, go to commercial... come back from commercial, show more replays of the score... then they run a generally meaningless play that about 65% or more of the time results in a touchback, and after a max oh 30 seconds or so of action, we get yet another commercial break... Even for non-tv games the aligning for the kickoff, cycling players on and back off the field, then back on again to play offense and defense... is a huge waste of time!

Sure, there is the occasional exciting kickoff return, Deebo’s From this past season being the examples, right? And what did that get us? Beyond a couple scores and highlights, it lead to two empty statistical possessions for the offense! Now, “stats don’t mean a damn thing”, or “the only stat that matters is the W/L record”... I get that... except STATS DO MATTER! To everyone! How many of you were on here all year calling for our OC’s head, despite the fact WE WERE WINNING GAMES!?!.... How many times did you hear national pundits rating our early season wins as flukes because the other team had rung up more offensive yardage than us? Yeah... So STATS MATTER. Just ask Roper.... he is looking for a job after an overachieving 9 win season because the damn stats didn’t look good on offense! So, removing that STs yardage, if it had been applied to our offense instead 150-200 or more yards from those two TD runs alone, not to mention all the other run backs we had that went past the 20 on drives that we scored on)... would have helped those stats look better... Not saying he keeps his job/ or that he should have, but maybe he does. Maybe we wind up more nationally prominent/ nationally ranked... Point being if SO MUCH is going to be taken from stats- coaches being fired, rankings of teams potentially impacted... Why are we allowing this anomaly - that nobody takes the time to account for- to persist? Toss in the high rate of injuries on these plays because guys are running FULL SPEED in opposite directions before crashing into each other (vs normal plays where there is max a few yards between players and limited opposing speed/force on most impacts), and... Yeah, STs plays in general -beyond extra points or field goals- are probably not going to exist much longer.

Nothing else you typed in the last 2 paragraphs is even up for a vote. Kickoffs aren't going away and there’s nothing being proposed that will shorten the game.

How do you think the NCST would have ended without Debo’s return?
 
I watched 5 to 10 minutes.

Watch closely. Very little hitting by anyone. Not taking ball carriers to the ground in most cases. It's worse than a spring game. This will be millennial soccer mom football (at the very least) in the not too distant future.


Truly a disappointing situation...
 
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