The Green Zone: Riders' Jeremy O'Day preparing for 2025
11h ago
O'Day discusses Trevor Harris and changes to be made to get the Riders back to the Grey Cup.
The National Football League has ruined kickoffs to the point where they might as well get rid of them.
New rules were implemented at league meetings this week.
Kick returns offer the potential for some of the most exciting plays in football but the NFL clearly wants less of them.
There is no blocking in what they describe as a setup zone until the ball is caught, so blockers have to run with players instead of getting in front of them early. The kicking team can’t get a running start and have to line up a yard off the ball.
Also if a ball is not touched it is an automatic touchback when it goes into the end zone.
With all these rules, just line up the ball at the 25-yard line and get on with it then.
The kickoffs are mainly useless now anyway and now they’re being made more useless.
I understand the rule changes are all for player safety, but wouldn’t it be safer to eliminate them all together?