The NFL is open to any potential improvements to its rules, with kickoffs and punts of particular interest, and the league is looking at minor leagues and college football in its quest to make those plays safer and more competitive.
NFL Executive Vice President of Football Operations Troy Vincent said today that the league is studying the XFL, the USFL and the NCAA to see whether the league should model its own rules on those other rulebooks.
“What can we learn from the XFL, the USFL?” Vincent said. “We look at college, the NCAA fair catch.”
The Competition Committee has recommended adopting the college fair catch rule on kickoffs, which puts the ball on the 25-yard line after a fair catch anywhere inside the 25. That results in more fair catches, fewer kickoff returners being tackled, and therefore fewer injuries.
But the rule that will draw the most interest is the potential to adopt the XFL’s kickoff rule, which includes 10 players on the kicking team and 10 players on the receiving team lining up just five yards apart, meaning that players don’t get running starts and run full-speed into each other. The XFL has boasted that its kickoffs have fewer injuries and more returns than NFL kickoffs.
So far the NFL hasn’t weighed a proposal to adopt the XFL kickoff rule. But it’s good to see that the league is at least taking a look at an outside idea.
