The NFL is considering a rule change after criticism from former President Donald Trump, a report shows.
The league introduced the dynamic kickoff during the offseason in an effort to revive kickoffs after previous changes were made due to player safety concerns.
However, just four weeks into the 2024 season, the league could be making a U-turn.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell suggested changes could be coming, hinting that moving touchbacks to 5 yards could also be in play.
“I think we need to make some changes to kickoffs that will, I think, lead to a lot more kickoff returns,” Goodell said Tuesday on NFL Network’s “Good Morning Football.”
The NFL (pictured right, commissioner Roger Goodell) is considering a rule change after former President Donald Trump (left) targeted the league’s kickoff
He added that the race committee meeting to discuss the changes will take place next week.
The NFL has adjusted its kickoff rules in recent years due to safety concerns, but noticed that it resulted in fewer kicks being returned. Last season, for example, only 21.8 percent of kickoffs were returned. In 2010 that figure was 80 percent.
So to revive the kickoff, the NFL adjusted the rules again.
For a standard kickoff, the ball is kicked from the 35-yard line, with the 10 players lining up for kick coverage facing 40 – five on each side of the field. This structure will theoretically reduce the number of high-impact collisions at kickoff.
Meanwhile, the returning team has at least nine blockers lined up in the “deployment zone” between the 30- and 35-yard lines, with at least seven of those players hitting the 35.
A maximum of two returners are allowed in the 20.
Only the kicker and two returners may move until the ball touches the ground or is touched by a returner within the 20.
And any kick that reaches the end zone in the air can be returned, or the receiving team can opt for a touchback and possession of the ball at the 30. Any kick that reaches the end zone in the air and goes out of bounds or out of the end zone will also result in a touchback on the 30.
Goodell’s suggestion came just a few days after Trump criticized the rule change during the Alabama-Georgia college football game last weekend.
The league introduced the dynamic kickoff during the offseason in an attempt to revive them
Trump, Herschel Walker (center) and Clay Travis are pictured during Georgia-Alabama
“I don’t know what they do with the kickoff return in the NFL, and I don’t want to get involved in any controversy, but it looks so bad, and I noticed they didn’t do that in college, and they shouldn’t do it, and I think the NFL should go back,” Trump told Outkick.com’s Clay Travis, an outspoken supporter of the 45th president, on Saturday.
Referring to the more traditional kickoff lineup still used by the NCAA, Trump admitted “maybe it’s a little more dangerous” before quickly contradicting himself.
“I doubt it’s more dangerous,” he told Travis. “It’s, you know, it’s football. I think [the NFL] made a terrible mistake. But look at this, [college football hasn’t] I did it, it was the first thing I looked at. I said, ‘Did they do it?’ It looks so strange and you don’t change something that works.
“But this is really big-time football,” he said, referring to Alabama’s upset of rival Georgia. “And it’s great to see.”