The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
NFL eyes XFL kickoff for yet fewer concussions
Officials cite touchback rule for 60% drop due to plunge in runbacks.
The NFL has been analyzing the XFL kickoff model and will consider it this offseason, along with other potential modifications, after a season in which league officials attributed a sharp drop in concussions suffered on kickoffs mostly to a lack of returns under a temporary rule change.
There were eight concussions suffered on kickoffs this season, according to the league’s annual injury data. That was down from 20 concussions suffered by players on kickoffs last season, NFL health and safety officials said.
That 60% reduction was almost entirely attributable, those officials said, to the drop in the number of kickoffs returned after the NFL enacted a rule for this season allowing the ball to be placed at the 25-yard line — in what amounts to a touchback — on a fair catch inside the 25-yard line.
“That play is neither safer nor more dangerous,” said Jeff Miller, the NFL’s executive vice president of communications, public affairs and policy. “The lesser frequency of the ball being returned on that play led to the decrease in injuries.”
The NFL previously has mentioned the XFL version of the kickoff, in which the kicker begins the play in the traditional spot but other members of the kicking team line up far down the field, only 5 yards from the blockers on the receiving team. That alignment eliminates high-speed collisions with would-be tacklers sprinting down the field toward blockers and the ball carrier that have led NFL leaders to call the kickoff the sport’s most hazardous play.
The league’s review of the XFL variation is underway, and the NFL continues to mention it as an option entering the annual offseason deliberations between health and safety officials and members of the rulemaking competition committee.
“We’ve spent a fair amount of time analyzing the current kickoff,” Miller said, “and understanding why there are certain injuries in certain ways, the mechanisms of those injuries. … We have analyzed the XFL rule, which you know is a bit of a departure from ours. … We’ve analyzed that rule to see whether or not there’s things that we can learn from there. There will be a number of other options that we’re taking a look at, at the behest of the (competition) committee.”
The deliberations about the kickoff are expected to begin in earnest when the competition committee meets at the NFL scouting combine this month in Indianapolis.
Any rule-change proposal could be considered by NFL team owners at the league’s annual meeting in late March in Orlando; it would have to be approved by 24 of the 32 teams.
The rule change allowing fair catches on kickoffs was ratified on a one-year basis, and the NFL has said all along that it would consider more sweeping and lasting changes to the kickoff this offseason. Even so, Miller stopped short of saying t is certain that a new kickoff model will be in place by next season.
“That’s really a question for the competition committee,” Miller said. “I do think that we all share … a desire to take what is now, with a 22 percent return rate … an infrequent return and turn that into a more exciting play. … We believe that you can increase the return rate substantially and not increase the risk beyond that found on your typical rush or pass play.”
The NFL originally projected that, with the fair-catch rule, about 31 percent of kickoffs would be returned this season (down from 38 percent last season). Instead, that number hovered around 20 percent all season, as teams mostly opted to kick the ball through the end zone instead of trying to hang kickoffs high and short in hopes of pinning the returning team inside the 25-yard line.
The reduction in concussions suffered on kickoffs was higher than projected. NFL leaders have said for years that the kickoff must be made safer if it is going to remain in the sport. Now, they also are trying to keep it from becoming a noncompetitive, mostly ceremonial play.
Overall, the number of NFL concussions remained steady. Players suffered 219 concussions during regular season and preseason practices and games, roughly on par with the 213 from last season. That remains down sharply from the 2015 to 2017 seasons, when the annual number of concussions reached as many as 281.
“While concussions are stable, we want to see them go down,” NFL chief medical officer Allen Sills said. “We’re not satisfied with the number where we are. We believe the game today continues to be made safer. And we’re looking for how do we take the number of concussions and overall head impacts down even further.”
Injuries as a whole were down this season, as NFL players collectively missed 700 fewer games due to injuries than last season. That was driven, league health and safety officials said, largely by reductions in lower-extremity strains (such as injuries to hamstring, calf and groin muscles) and knee injuries. The 52 torn ACLs suffered during preseason and regular season games and practices represented a roughly 24 percent reduction from the average of the previous two seasons.