Kickoffs may be the next NFL stalwart to go out the window in the name of player safety.
Green Bay Packers president Mark Murphy, a member of the NFL Competition Committee, said that if nobody can find a way to reduce injuries on kickoffs, the committee will strongly consider eliminating them altogether.
“We’ve reduced the number of returns,” Murphy told a small group of reporters, “but we haven’t really done anything to make the play safer,” Murphy said, via Kevin Seifert of ESPN. “If you don’t make changes to make it safer, we’re going to do away with it. It’s that serious. It’s by far the most dangerous play in the game.”
Murphy noted that even on touchbacks, the risk of injury — particularly concussion — remains.
“The other thing that’s kind of frustrating is there were concussions on touchbacks,” Murphy said. “So even though there’s no return, [the committee is] looking at what kind of things you can do to make sure people were aware that there’s not even a return. You see this, too: One player lets up, the player covering lets up, and one of the blockers comes over and, you know. That creates problems when you’ve got one player going half speed and the other one full speed.”
The NFL has constantly tried to tinker with kickoffs to reduce the risk, but injuries remain high and actual returns seem to get fewer and fewer. There’s a lot of risk and less and less reward, and you have to wonder how much longer they’ll be allowed in the game.
