NFL in search of a safer kickoff

Because t he NFL wants to make its game safer, many believe the kickoff is doomed.

It’s too dangerous — the worst concussion causer, with all those high- speed collisions.

Various ideas have been floated to either make the kickoff safer or retain the possession- exchange principle in some new way. Former NFL special- teams coach Mike Westhoff has been advocating his own idea.

“What I want to do is turn that non-play into a play,” he said Wednesday.

Westhoff would have the ball kicked off 10 yards farther back, from the kicking team’s 25- yard line. The receiving team, as now, could not line up closer than 10 yards. “Now, what I want is the return team to line up nine guys on that 10- yard restraining line. Nine,” said Westhoff.

Westhoff ’s other wrinkle: the ball would only be live — recoverable by the kicking team as well as receiving team — up to the midfield stripe for any kick that travelled in the air to that point. The kicking team could not recover on the receiving team’s side of the field. In essence, any kickoff beyond anything popped up short would be treated by both teams as a punt. It could roll dead and the receiving team take over there.

Westhoff said he’d also eliminate “double- teaming and trapping” — dangerous blocks.

“So in essence, you’ve turned this kickoff return into a punt return, as far as collisions go,” Westhoff said. “The coverage team would have a 10- yard run- up or so before the collisions, instead of 40 yards. But the point is, you’d have a play … an actual play.” Not a non-play. That is, a touchback.