The NFL’s new kickoff rule has its fans and its critics. The former President of the United States falls into the latter.
The Green Bay Packers and Philadelphia Eagles opened their season up in Brazil on Friday night. Former President Trump, evidently taking a break from campaign activities, took to Truth Social to voice his displeasure at the NFL’s new safety-minded kickoff alignment.
“I can’t believe the NFL is effectively getting rid of the always exciting Kick Off Return. Such an exciting part of football. What are they doing? BEGINNING OF THE END!” Trump wrote.
The NFL’s new kickoff rules, meant to enhance safety, are as follows:
- Kickers will kick off from their own 35-yard line. The 10 other players from the kicking team will line up on the opposing team’s 40-yard line.
- The receiving team will have at least nine players line up in the “setup zone” between the 35- and 30-yard lines. Two returners will be stationed in a landing zone, from the 20-yard line to the goal line.
- No players (except the kicker and returners) can move until the ball is received by a returner.
- Returners can return the football wherever it lands.
- A touchback at the 20-yard line would occur if the ball touches the ground or player in the landing zone, rolls beyond the goal line and downed in the end zone.
- A touchback could occur at the 30-yard line if the ball goes out of bounds behind the receiving team’s goal line, if it strikes the goalpost, or lands at or beyond the goal line and downed in the end zone.
It looks like this:
The rules were meant to promote safety while encouraging players to return the ball. However, so far, that’s not happening. In 2023, the touchback state was 74 percent. Through two games this year, it is 79 percent.
“In 2011, the league moved kickoffs forward five yards to the 35-yard line, making it easier to kick the ball deep into the end zone and leading to more touchbacks with teams starting at the 20-yard line,” Fox News reports. “In 2016, touchbacks placed teams at 25, which further encouraged them. Then last season, returners could call for a fair catch anywhere, not just in the end zone, for a touchback, resulting in the lowest return rate in NFL history.”
The NFL is only two games into its 2024 season, though if the touchbacks keep increasing, the likelihood of yet another kick-off rule change grows.