So long to the kickoff

[Castavar]

Claim it's for "safety", yet Thursday Night games and turf is still prevalent.

[Jackie Lee]

If teams start trying squib kicks aimed at having a returner scrambling to pick the ball up off the ground while gunners come up to rock them it'll just be a different way for returners to get injured. 

[DeAngelo Beason]

Maybe I'm crazy, but I just don't feel like that many injuries are happening on kickoffs these days?  Why do they keep targeting them for rule changes?

[Smithers]

1 hour ago, kungfoodude said:

Thank God. Our KR game has been miserable for a long time.

Ikr - Panthers fans complaining about a rule that seems to benefit us (no KR, a K who doesn’t have a strong enough leg to boot it out of the end zone) seems weird.  

[kungfoodude]

4 minutes ago, Smithers said:

Ikr - Panthers fans complaining about a rule that seems to benefit us (no KR, a K who doesn’t have a strong enough leg to boot it out of the end zone) seems weird.  

It sucks for the casual NFL fan but this is objectively great news for the Panthers.

[kungfoodude]

41 minutes ago, Castavar said:

Claim it's for "safety", yet Thursday Night games and turf is still prevalent.

[1of10Charnatives]

3 hours ago, Wes21 said:

I like this change personally.  Now I can confidently take a break from the game after every score without having to peak back at the kickoff...and then go back to the commercial break.  Knowing that it isn't being returned will save me some effort.

Because you're watching the games in 1993 without DVR capability that will let you pause while you take your break, and then catchup after with FF?

I haven't watched halftime or a commercial of any Panthers games in years. If kickoff is at 1, I start watching at 2. That's 17 hours a year of my life I get back from corporate america and whatever chuckleheads are doing the halftimes these days.

[Tomcatn]

3 hours ago, SurvivalSloth said:

Roger Goodell is a b*tch.

Roger sez, I'll show those a**holes to boo me at the NFL drafts!

[Jackie Lee]

15 minutes ago, 1of10Charnatives said:

Because you're watching the games in 1993 without DVR capability that will let you pause while you take your break, and then catchup after with FF?

I haven't watched halftime or a commercial of any Panthers games in years. If kickoff is at 1, I start watching at 2. That's 17 hours a year of my life I get back from corporate america and whatever chuckleheads are doing the halftimes these days.

So do you just completely avoid the huddle and twitter until 2pm? Don't think I could do it

[JawnyBlaze]

2 hours ago, Brooklyn 3.0 said:

Pat McAfee whining like a baby made my day.

Funny how fans, announcers, AND players rag on kickers and punters all the time but now all the sudden everyone has their back lol. Also funny that people get irate over artificial turf causing injury but don't give a rat's ass about injuries to special teamers after they collide at violent speeds. The NFL could've folded (ok not really) over the concussion BS so they made new rules and added new tech to help. This is yet another layer.

As a fan, all they care about is seeing truck stick hits (unless it's to their team at which point it's OMG get that brute out of the game he hurt our guy!) and don't give a damn about injuries AS LONG as the mighty rich NFL covers retired players health for life lol.

So what is it? You want your boys kept safe? Or do you want to see your boys lay wood on other teams each week? You can't have it both ways.

I say get rid of all kicking. As much as fans blame kickers all the damn time, it's one less thing for them to rage about.

It’s not about the big hits, it’s about strategy and field position. If they wanna get rid of kicking altogether and force 2pt conversions after every TD I’ll probably whine at first but I’ll get used to it. Selectively neutering part of the field position game sucks though. 

[Mr. Scot]

3 hours ago, rodeo said:

I was incredulous about it when they first started stripping back kickoffs, but yeah, studies do show there's a wildly disproportionate amount of injuries on kickoffs.

The same guys who claim things like this are for player safety insist on keeping artificial turf fields.

[Stuart Smith]

3 hours ago, Growl said:

do people not realize that they intentionally sabotage things they’d like to do away with so exactly this type of fan throws up their hands and goes “you may as well just get rid of it!”

 

 

Surprised they did not  just change to a coin flip  for first possession at the beginning of the game, start at the 25 yard line. Might be next move. The only excitement on the “fair catch” kickoff would be the possibility of the receiver fumbling. 

[Jackie Lee]

1 minute ago, Stuart Smith said:

Surprised they did not  just change to a coin flip  for first possession at the beginning of the game, start at the 25 yard line. Might be next move. The only excitement on the “fair catch” kickoff would be the possibility of the receiver fumbling. 

I won't be surprised if we see some experimental kickoffs in preseason. Some Squibs, some high short stuff etc designed to create complete chaos for the returner. If the ball hits the ground before it reaches the guy they gotta scramble to pick it up and do something with it. 

[Carolina Cajun]

theres kickers who are gonna lose their jobs over this.  Why keep a kicker with a big leg so that he can guarantee touchbacks when you can keep a more accurate kicker.  Now kicker debates will be purely about accuracy and much less about power.