Rutgers head football coach Greg Schiano saw firsthand last year the potential for kickoffs to go horribly wrong when Scarlet Knights’ player Eric LeGrand was paralyzed while making a tackle on the kick coverage team. Recently, he’s made wave in the college football world by starting to advocate for a major rule change, the elimination of kickoffs from the game entirely. Georgia coach Mark Richt has just jumped on the bandwagon, as well. 

Schiano’s idea is to replace kickoffs with punts. The thinking being that on a punt, players don’t have a free 40-50 yard run toward the ballcarrier. That amount of space to build up a head of steam before slamming into blockers or the return man causes some of the most violent and uncontrollable collisions on the football field. True, that speed and chaos are part of what make kick returns one of the more exciting plays in the game, but that excitement comes with an inordinate amount of injury and violence. 

To replace onside kicks, Coach Schiano has suggested a scenario where the “kicking team” would have one offensive play, with the down and distance marked at 4th and 15. It’s not a finalized idea, just something he was throwing out there to replace the onside kick. But I think it’s a good start. 

Anyone who has ever played organized football knows that kickoffs are dangerous. When I was on the kick coverage team as a gunner, I loved it. I was 16 and thought I was invincible. I loved to run fast and hit people and that’s exactly what I was tasked with doing. But it got less and less fun after I hurt an opponent. I was running down and one of my teammates had wrapped the return man by the legs. He was still trying to hop out of the tackle when I hit him high. He folded to the ground and started screaming. When I looked down, his foot was right next to his hip. I don’t know the extent of his injury, but it looked gruesome. I remember thinking that, if it had just been a regular play from scrimmage, there was no way I would have been able to hit him that hard and there was no way he would have been in such a vulnerable position.

After that play, I kind of lost my zest for kick coverage. I still loved playing football and running around and hitting people, but there was always that voice in the back of my head, warning me not to come in so recklessly. I didn’t want to hurt someone that badly again. Maybe that makes me soft, I don’t know. I still laid people out from time to time, but not to that extent. 

So I think Schiano’s idea is a good one. On a punt, the gunners have a defender checking them the whole way down the field, so it’s harder for them to get a free run at the return man. Punt returns are just as exciting as kickoffs, with less of the career and life-threatening collisions.

Over one hundred years ago, formations like the flying wedge were banned and a series of rule changes were made to the game to make it safer. Those changes were made in response to increasing deaths on the field. I think it’s fair to say that, over the past 15-20 years, we’ve seen an increase in spinal and head injuries in the game. I just hope it doesn’t take a death on the field for rules committees to take action.