Ohio has eliminated kickoffs from frosh games altogether and from JV games unless both coaches agree to have a kickoff.

 

Offense starts at the 35.

 

I read that IL does something similar for non-varsity games.

 

Ohio official said it was a safety issue .

It is banned from Middle School games as well.

I think we need to just get rid of the helmets and pads and go with flags. That is how it will be eventually. I don't like the new rule.

Terrible! Kick offs can change a game!

Let’s just start playing rugby and have done with it.

Terrible ruling. Football as we know it is slowly dying. I do not think they'll ever completely kill it but it definitely resembles less and less of the game I played and have always loved. Safety is a great thing but as per usual in America, we take things way too far.

I’m not a fan of eliminating kickoffs. And I’m sure I’ll get flamed and called soft for this opinion, But at the Freshman level and below (JV can still do it if the coaches agree), it’s usually done so poorly, I don’t think most will miss it all that much. Coaches have long recognized the dangers of kickoffs, and most (including myself) no longer practice kickoffs live in practice anymore. Not to mention that freshman only football is being played less and less and only by the larger schools (with some exceptions). More importantly, fans have to stop reacting to every rule change with the snarky comments, like “let’s just wear flags”, or “why not just play whatever sport we don’t perceive as tough as football”. It’s crass and does nothing to help the cause, especially when we continue to read stories about how accumulating head injuries have affected the guys we watched growing up. To ignore the mounting evidence is irresponsible, and would ultimately kill the game. We have to want to, and continue to try to do better for our children, instead of keeping the status quo and exposing them to needless danger just for our entertainment. It’s selfish, and irresponsible.

 

As a coach (who’s played and coached for most of the last 35 years), I want the sport to be around for future generations. All sports evolve in the name of safety. Look what’s happened to boxing. If eliminating kickoffs is what takes to help save the sport, then I’ll live with it.

Totally agree with rjs. Kicking game sucks on the youth/middle school level, and it's really bad at best on the freshman level. Hell, there are lots of high school teams that aren't able to get a decent kicker trained in the course of 4 years. I have no problem with it being gone in freshman ball.

This is not the last we will hear of this. In the next 5 years, we will see kickoffs eliminated from all levels of football up to and including the NFL. This year in NCAA these is a change that receiving team can fair catch a kickoff inside of the 25 and take it as a touch back out to the 25.

 

There was a PROPOSAL this year for NCAA to eliminate the kickoff. In lieu of onside kicks, the kicking team could have the ball 4th and 15 on their own 35.

 

The kickoff is soon to walk off to the sunset, joining the leather helmet as the topic of folklore

Soft.

While we’re at it, let’s take away passing. Everyone knows about those big shots receivers take going across the middle, or when the QB gets blindsided by a blitzing corner.

 

Let’s go ahead and remove rushing too... Those RB’s take headshots literally every time they carry the ball, gotta eliminate that possibility too.

 

Should we requre the water boy/girl to wear a helmet? Wouldn’t be a bad idea...

Soft.

 

Maybe it is. But we’ve known for years that the kickoff is the most dangerous play ever n the sport. Again, 99% of teams don’t even practice it live for that reason. And it’s really not all that exciting. Touch backs are boring and expose players to high speed, unnecessary collisions (because basically nothing happens). Squib kicks aren’t any better. If we’re being honest, 95% of the time, kickoffs are pretty boring with zero action. So we want to keep the play around at the high school level and below, where its poorly executed, never practiced, and still dangerous, simply for the handful of kickoff returns for TD’s that do happen? Needlessly exposing kids to danger, all so we can say they aren’t soft? It’s really silly, if not selfish. The caretakers of the game have a moral obligation to make the game safer for our kids (and adults). That is more important than not being “soft”.

While we’re at it, let’s take away passing. Everyone knows about those big shots receivers take going across the middle, or when the QB gets blindsided by a blitzing corner.

 

Let’s go ahead and remove rushing too... Those RB’s take headshots literally every time they carry the ball, gotta eliminate that possibility too.

 

Should we requre the water boy/girl to wear a helmet? Wouldn’t be a bad idea...

 

Hyperbole. And it ignores the fact that kickoffs are just dangerous, and for the most part unexciting if you really analyze it. Are touchbacks really fun to watch? Squib Kicks? That's pretty much what you see at the high school level. It's pretty much a ceremonial play, except for the rare onside kick, or kickoff return. Heck, we have to pull a player from another sport that most football heads like to make fun of, soccer, just to find someone who can actually kick the ball well. Not to mention, many normally make fun of the kicker too, and say he's not a "real player". And to do it well, what do we want? We want the ball to go in the endzone so nothing happens. So we want to save a play, started by a guy who we think is soft (the kicker) from a sport we think is soft (soccer), which the desired end result is nothing happening, all while exposing players to dangerous high speed, collisions? Doesn't make sense if you really think about it. All the plays you described don't involve players lining up 20 or more yards apart and running head on into each other at full speed. Yes those plays you mention can be dangerous, and do happen. But as a rule, kickoffs are designed to be that way.

TL : DR

 

The bottom line is as people continue to take contact out of football, the game will die. It’s a shame. If you don’t want your kid to get hit, don’t let them play, it’s really that simple. Stop being soft. You know what you’re signing up for when you play the sport.

TL : DR

 

The bottom line is as people continue to take contact out of football, the game will die. It’s a shame. If you don’t want your kid to get hit, don’t let them play, it’s really that simple. Stop being soft. You know what you’re signing up for when you play the sport.

 

I wish you had read my posts, because I think I raise some reasonable, sensible points, and I hope this one isn’t too long for you to read. This is coming from my perspective as a longtime, current coach who also played, and whos kids played. No one is taking contact out of the sport. The kickoff is a largely ceremonial play, that doesn’t get executed well at lower levels, and results in nothing (a touchback, or a squib that isn’t returned) when executed perfectly, while still exposing players to dangerous, high speed, head on collisions. The kickoff is dangerous enough that most don’t practice it live. If it’s too dangerous to practice, it shouldn’t be in games.

 

That’s not being soft. It’s being sensible.