The NFL’s new kickoff debuted Thursday night at the Hall of Fame game and I loved it. Here’s a refresher for ya. Last year something like 22% of kickoffs were returned. Last night we had 88% returned:

Sure, the set up looks stupid on TV, but it’s effective if you want more action and who doesn’t want more action in football? Kickoffs were only good for piss breaks. Let’s finally get these special teams coordinators earning their paycheck again. Enough of kickers just booting it out of the endzone. They can still do that, but it gives the return team the ball at the 30 (if it lands in the endzone in the air). Last night we even needed a guy to spot it because of the windy conditions, who then had to immediately run off the field with the tee. Hijinx already!

Would you rather this?

I don’t feel anything in my plums when guys are fair-catching it at the 10.

And the new rules expert Russ Yurk? Love that guy. ESPN hired a new guy we can get mad at. I love getting mad at the rules experts when their opinion is against my favorite team. I HATE seeing Dean Blandino and Gene Steratore’s dumb faces on my screen when they go against my team. Last night Yurk chimed in when he definitely wasn’t supposed to and Joe Buck made a sarcastic comment about him being comfortable already. It was great!


The new kickoff rule is going to be awesome. People won’t know how much they missed kickoff returns until guys start running some back. It’ll lead to better field position that will lead to more points scored. Overs for days baby! And if it’s good enough for the GOAT, it should be good enough for all of us: