A PI call could be different yardage wise, but the whole 15 yard thing makes me think it could be a little skewed.

Almost exactly the same thing.

Wait till the coaches have to have a legal assistant on the sidelines to clear every play through so the league can make sure any particular formation might not result in additional liability to the league.

Football will die an agonizing death from the fan viewpoint and it won’t even be a slow one with the people running the league these days.

Pathetic.

Joe Theismann’s career ended on a pass play when he got sacked. Should we ban the D-Line from rushing the passer or remove pass plays altogether?

I understand the emphasis on safety, but the players know what they’re getting into. Freak injuries are part of the game. There are risks and there are rewards. The guys who want the payday and no contact should master baseball or basketball.

The game of football is a violent sport. Players get paid millions of dollars to put it all on the line for this intense game we call football.

Roger Goodell acts like the overly protective mom that just won’t let her son do anything. It’s time to let go and realize injuries happen. It’s a contact sport.

Hey there party kids! Let’s all just pretend to be drunk, because alcohol is bad for you.

Kickoffs are rarely exciting. Even those that aren’t touchbacks usually result in a returner running to about the 20 yard line and getting tackled. I would venture to guess that less than one in twenty results in an exciting play.

The numbers don’t lie. When you compare the amount of catastrophic injuries overall to the number that occur on kickoffs, there is a clear connection.

Eliminating the kickoff would certainly not be the “end” of football. Did college basketball “end” when they got rid of the tip off? I’ll bet many of you didn’t even know they had, and college BB is as big or bigger than ever.

Over the last 20 years, there has been rule change after rule change that people squawked would be the “end of football”. Yet football is bigger and more popular than ever.

There is something exciting to the OPENING kick off of the game and the second half, due to the anticipation and excitement. Here’s my compromise: Kickoff to start the game the second half, and any time the scoring team is down by 8 points or less with less than 3 minutes to go (thus allowing for on-side kicks), and start at the 25 instead of kicking off for other points of the game.

This rule would place even more emphasis on the passing game and teams with “elite” QBs would have an even bigger advantage. RBs would become less important than they already are. There are a ton of potential unintended consequences with a change as drastic as this. You’ve seen how the rules are written, how confident are you that the lawyers will write it well enough that it is clear? Personally, I do not see the need for change since most kickoff returns have already been eliminated. The constant tinkering is ruining a once great game. Please stop it.

I think a better Idea would be to have the kicking team punt from the 50 so that way there is still the excitement of a kick return but the kicking players don’t get a full head of steam.

If they want to onside kick they have to do it at the 50 and if they recover they take it at their own 30 but if they don’t recover the receiving team gets it at the 50.

Schiano ought to go back to the college game if he wants to start messing with the game since they messed with it with overtime rules, to say nothing of the lack of a playoff system.

After scoring, the scoring team will have two options.

1. Concede the ball to the opponent who will then start from their own 20.

2. Attempt a 50 yard field goal for a chance to retain possession. If the FG is good they will keep possession and start from their own 20. If they miss the FG the opponent is awarded possession at the spot of the kick (their own 40).

As for the kick-off proposal. I absolutely hate the idea. Keep kick-offs in the game. That said, if they are hell-bent on changing the game, then this idea is better than just getting the ball on the ___ yard line.

Essentially, you would force them into a “punt-type” formation for kick-offs.

1. The idea was devised when he was at Rutgers after watching LeGrand get paralyzed, not 3 months ago after the Giants game. Besides, he has been helping all levels of football in creating a procedure for handling spinal cord injuries ie Quincy Black’s injury this year.

2. He also never said 4th and 15 was the end all be all. He said do research and whatever the percentage to equal onside kicks success rates should be used. It may need to be 4th and 20 or 30 even.

3. As for the kneel down play. The same collisions happen every time a punt block or FG block is called. The “problem” with the kneel down play is that no one had ever done it.

4. Rule changes have happened in football since it’s inception. The largest being the adoption of the forward pass Schiano mentions 1906, but also the two point conversion 1960, moving goal posts to back of the endzone 1974, horsecollar tackles and facemask penalties were added, etc.

Ultimately, the game has always changed and will continue to change. The kickoff will be taken out of the game due to the severity and frequency of the injuries. Schiano is trying to think about a solution that still gives the game excitement instead of just starting at the 20. Kudos to him, and for anyone who can’t use their brains for something other than complaining, run down on a couple kickoffs and experience a couple kickoffs yourself!!

Football by nature is a violent game, those who play should understand that they take a risk everytime they go out there. Furthermore, injuries like LeGrand’s are rare, extremely rare. This proposed rule change isn’t about making the game safer, its just one more layer to protect Goodell and the NFL from a lawsuit should the unthinkable happen. If this keeps up in a few years the helmets and pads will be gone and the NFL will be a full fledged flag football league.

At an average gross punt of 45 yards, the ball will land around the opponent’s 25 yard line which all but ensures a return to somewhere between the 30 and 35. That’s far better field position than the kickoffs produce.

Also, if punt rules apply, a muffed punt can’t be advanced by the kicking team – during a kickoff, that ball is 100% live if fumbled or dropped.

Another detail will be requiring a certain number of defenders/return-team members within 7 yards of the line of scrimmage to prevent the downfield collisions this plan is designed to eliminate.

If a team scores a touchdown, instead of kicking off to the other team, the team that just scored the touchdown gets a 4th and 15 and can either convert it, or the ball goes to the other team at their 20 or 30? If that is the case, some teams will just play keep away all game, and one team may not get the ball for a whole half. Is this correct?