The NFL’s first full weekend of preseason games brought the first unusual result of a kickoff under the league’s new rules for the play.
Chiefs returner Mecole Hardman fielded a ball that was on the 1-yard-line while kneeling in the end zone for what he thought would be a touchback. Under past rules, it would have been because the ball bounced in the end zone before re-entering the field of play but such balls are now live and that meant it was now a safety to field it the way Hardman did.
After the game on Saturday, Chiefs head coach Andy Reid said he was looking for a fuller explanation of the rules. On Monday, Reid said Hardman should have picked up the ball and run with it but that it is “our responsibility for making sure that it’s clarified.” Thanks to what happened in the game, that’s now happened for all involved.
“I think it was good for the officials to see it, I think it was good for us to see it,” Reid said, via Ed Easton Jr. of USAToday.com. “We understood the part of it where if it [the ball] goes in, it’s still alive. Again, that’s similar to the sideline where you can be outside and reach back in — that part got clarified; it’s not like that, so that’s a live ball.”
Other teams also likely feel it was good to see how things played out for the Chiefs because the rule is new for everyone and the new wrinkle about a ball landing in the end zone didn’t get the same notice as other aspects of the rule this offseason. That changed last weekend and a lot of people will benefit from the example of what not to do.