Touchback!

Plenty of the buzz at the NFL owner's meeting this week has been about the possible rule changes, especially the proposed changes to kickoffs. In a "player safety" move, the owners wanted to have teams kick from the 35 yard line, and push touchbacks out to the 25 yard line. My initial reaction, and the biggest argument the coaches had against this rule, was that player safety wasn't going to be impacted at all, because teams were now going to kick high and directionally, like a punt, to try and pin teams deep. Not many teams would concede the touchback now, unless they were kicking to an elite returner.

Eventually the rule change that they settled on yesterday was to in fact move the kickoffs to the 35, but to keep the touchbacks coming out to the 20. Basically, we are going back to the kickoff rules that were in place until the mid 90s. Most players and coaches won't get too bent out of shape about this, but guys like Devin Hester and Joshua Cribbs have already voiced their displeasure. That's not surprising considering that they stand to lose a lot of money in all this. The NFL's top return men now have been pretty much neutered. Nowadays it's rather easy for kickers, or punters who handle kickoff duties, to bury a kick into the end zone from the 35. And the fact that the coverage teams have to cover 5 less yards means that taking a return out of the endzone is even riskier now. Teams don't like getting pinned at the 20, but every yard inside the 20 counts....and coaches are not going to want to risk those important yards

So this just made me wonder....is this really about player safety, as the owners maintain, or is it another financial move? It's no secret that money has been the root of all evil when it comes to the NFL lockout. I'm not even going to get into that right now. Are the owners really thinking of the players here, or their assets? For some this could be an easy way to save a few bucks off player salaries, and for others it'll be a great way to reallocate the limit dollars they can spend under the salary cap....the real irony here is that I am sure a couple teams will just take that extra money and spend it on a kicker or punter with a strong enough leg to put it through the endzone almost every time.

Replay is another thing the owners addressed again....and, in my eyes, still haven't gotten it right. They agreed to install a policy of reviewing every scoring play to make sure you take that burden away from the coaches, especially the away coaches who are at a HUGE disadvantage on questionable scoring plays. That is a step in the right direction, but for some reason they also wanted to take a step back and eliminate the 3rd coaches challenge. Currently, each team only gets two replay challenges, but they receive a third challenge if both of those first two are upheld. I don't see the logic in taking away the third challenge from a coach who is 2-0. In fact I think that if the coach is right, he should have unlimited challenges. Stay with the 2 challenges, but let them keep going as long as they are winning these challenges. In the rare event that coaches use 4 or 5 in a game, the games may be a few minutes longer (which I know is taboo as far as the owners are concerned) but isn't that trade off worth it once or twice a season to make sure the calls on the field are correct?

Another thing the owner's meeting is always good for is letting them get more free airtime to further whatever cause they have going on at the time. Right now, with the lockout front and center for all fans, the owners are already getting a lot of publicity....so I haven't paid too much attention, but I did hear Giants owner John Mara talking about the draft yesterday. Basically, he said that the lockout isn't going to change the draft strategy for his team and that he has always told his staff to go for the best player available no matter what. I know it's the standard answer when talking about who to draft, but it's still BS to me. No team with a superstar QB or RB would ever draft another high in the draft, no matter how much of a better player he was than the others available at that time. The Patriots aren't going to draft Cam Newton in the first round, even if he falls to them. Neither are the Colts, or even the Rams. Finances in the modern NFL just don't allow that, not to mention the media shitstorm that would follow. In the end though I was happy to hear Mara say that, and I really hope he sticks steadfastly to that draft strategy. I won't mind watching the Giants continue to get worse.