For kickoffs to live on in the NFL, they must be safer in 2018
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For the better part of a decade, the NFL has been chipping away at the kickoff — and for good reason. It has by far the highest incidence rate of concussions of any type of play in the sport.In 2009, the league banned blocking wedges of three or more playerFor kickoffs to live on in the NFL, they must be safer in 2018
For the better part of a decade, the NFL has been chipping away at the kickoff — and for good reason. It has by far the highest incidence rate of concussions of any type of play in the sport.In 2009, the league banned blocking wedges of three or more players on the return team, citing the high rate of injury of those either involved in the wedge or confronting it. Two years later, in an effort to increase touchbacks, the NFL moved the kickoff line from the kicking team’s 30-yard line to the 35. In 2016, touchbacks on kickoffs resulted in the return team starting with the ball on its own 25 instead of its own 20, creating further inducement for touchbacks instead of returns.Indeed, touchbacks are plentiful, and kickoff returns are by and large less exciting. About 56 percent of all kickoffs in the NFL in 2017 were touchbacks. Whereas there were 25 kickoffs returned for touchdowns in 2007, there were just seven kickoff returns in 2017, the same total as 2016.The problem is, while the NFL was willing to trade so Read more