Scary Collision in Packers–Cardinals Game Shows Why the NFL Needs to Do Something About Kickoffs
There has to be a better way
Thursday night’s game between the Packers and the Cardinals was a great one. An injury-depleted Green Bay team, missing several key players on both sides of the ball, went on the road and beat the NFL’s last remaining undefeated team on a clutch defensive play in endzone in the game’s final seconds. It doesn’t get much better than that.
But the game was also marred by a scary moment in the third quarter when the Packers’ Kylin Hill and the Cardinals’ Jonathan Ward collided on a kickoff return. Ward’s head slammed into Hill’s legs and both players laid on the ground for a while before being taken off on carts. Ward stayed down longer than Hill and needed to be placed on a stretcher. Hill was ruled out with a knee injury and Hill was evaluated for a neck injury and potential concussion.
Here’s what it looked like in slow motion:
The slowed-down video shows Hill’s leg bend unnaturally and Ward exhibiting the fencing response associated with concussions, but the full-speed video is even more brutal. It shows just how hard the collision was:
The play reignited the debate over the future of the kickoff. The NFL has made small tweaks to the kickoff rules in recent years in an attempt to make the play safer. Concussions on kickoffs dropped by 35% in 2018 after the league banned coverage teams from getting running starts and restricted where the return team’s players can set up and banned wedge blocks. But the play is still obviously a dangerous one, and it’s time for the NFL to come up with a better solution that prevents players from risking their health for just a couple of yards. Just ask the guy everyone always agrees with: Skip Bayless.
Bayless’s job is to come up with the worst opinions imaginable and say them on TV to make people mad. Maybe he was trolling the “real” football fans in his audience who think keeping athletes safe is a sign of the weakness responsible for America’s downfall, but his take is right. The kickoff is a perfunctory play. This year, 60% of kickoffs have resulted in touchbacks. Teams average only about two returns per game and the average return goes for just 22 yards. Rarely does a kickoff swing a game or even a drive.
The only sure way to remove the risk of injury would be to do away with the kickoff entirely by just placing the ball at the 25-yard line on a change of possession, which would be ridiculous. But there are a few ways to make the play safer. You could limit the number of kick returns by moving the touchback to the 30-yard line thus incentivizing players to take a knee more often. But then when the kick is returned, the play would still be just as dangerous as before. Instead, the league should think about completely overhauling the kickoff to make it inherently less dangerous.
In 2011, Greg Schiano proposed replacing the kickoff with a punt—not like the free kick after a safety, but a normal punt with both teams lined up across from each other. Because blockers and gunners run down the field in the same direction, you don’t have the same dangerous high-speed collisions that you do on a kickoff.
Personally, I’m a fan of the kickoff that the short-lived rebooted XFL used in 2020 where the coverage team and the blockers line up five yards apart from each other and aren’t allowed to move until the ball is caught.
Former Stanford offensive lineman Sam Schwartzstein was the director of football operations for the XFL and was part of the team that came up with the league’s rules. He said on Twitter after Thursday night’s collision that his version of the kickoff resulted in no injuries and had a return rate of 93%.
The XFL rule is safer because it prevents the sort of full-speed, head-on collisions that result in the most injuries. It also increases action. Since the kicker kicks off from his own 25-yard line, the ball rarely reaches the end zone for a touchback. The return man also has a chance to pick up speed before reaching the defenders, creating a chance for more big plays. The rule also forces kickers to be more precise with their kicks because a kick that reaches the end zone in the air can be downed for a “major touchack” that brings the ball out to the 35. After a kick that bounces in front of the goal line and is downed in the end zone, the receiving team gets the ball at the 15.
The NFL is constantly tinkering with its rules and always says that it is committed to player safety. If it’s serious about that, it’ll do something about the kickoff this offseason. There isn’t a perfect solution, but the league needs to at least start coming up with proposals to try to make the game safer.
The best of SI
Behind LaMelo Ball and Miles Bridges, the Hornets are the NBA’s most exciting team. ... The Knicks are looking even better than last year after overhauling their roster and starting to shoot far more three-pointers. ... How are the Braves going to navigate the rest of the World Series with such limited pitching options?
Around the sports world
Panthers coach Joel Quenneville resigned over his role in the Blackhawks sexual assault scandal. ... An English soccer manager apologized for comparing his team’s poor play to the Holocaust. ... China’s men’s hockey team is so bad that the IIHF might have it removed from the upcoming Olympics. ... The NAACP is urging athletes not to sign with Texas teams because of the state’s recent voting and abortion laws.
Hill was at least up and about after the game
What was A.J. Green doing?
Just like old times
That’s like a 25-foot floater
Blues goalie Jordan Binnington swung his stick at Nazem Kadri’s head
If the NFL wants to hire me to just be the guy everyone hates and yells at constantly, I think I could deal with it
Not sports
A local Satanic organization in Pennsylvania got a school board to change its dress code. ... The prime minister of Luxembourg plagiarized nearly every word of his university thesis.
Does Zuckerberg realize how dystopian everything he does looks?
A good song
Email dan.gartland@si.com with any feedback or follow me on Twitter for approximately one half-decent baseball joke per week. Bookmark this page to see previous editions of Hot Clicks and find the newest edition every day. By popular request I’ve made a Spotify playlist of the music featured here. Visit our Extra Mustard page throughout each day for more offbeat sports stories.
