Next fun NFL play that could be eliminated: vaulting over the line to block kicks
The NFL, in an effort to get safer, has changed kickoff and touchback rules in order to remove what it said to be one of the more dangerous plays in football. Next up could be eliminating one of the more entertaining NFL plays.
According to the Washington Post, the competition committee is expected to recommend banning players from leaping over the line of scrimmage on field-goal and extra-point attempts. This was first proposed by the NFLPA at the NFL scouting combine and will be further discussed by the committee at the NFL owners’ meetings next week in Phoenix.
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They likely will have a proponent from just down the road. Arizona Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians was irate after a last season’s 6-6 tie to the Seattle Seahawks after Bobby Wagner pulled off the move — which were within the rules at the time — to affect two missed Cardinals FG tries. Arians said the play was “bad for football,” which set off a little debate with Seahawks corner Richard Sherman, who said Arians’ “rhetoric is denied.”
After Monday’s report, it sounds like Wagner denies the rhetoric, too.
@SiriusXMNFL @Kam_Chancellor they shouldn't. It's fun jumping, I think the fans like it too
— Bobby Wagner (@Bwagz54) March 20, 2017
It is a fun play, even when it’s horribly botched.
What needs to be shown is whether it’s a truly dangerous one. There was a tangibly higher rate of injuries on kickoffs, so the rules justifiably were altered. But are players going down left and right on vault-the-center block attempts? We’d need whatever data the NFLPA and the league have on this because getting rid of it just as an auspice of safety would be foolish and wrong.
According to the union, the play is dangerous to everyone involved: the jumper and the guy who might be below him. Although the kicker or holder isn’t mentioned by NFLPA president Eric Winston in the Post story.
“The jumping over on the field goal, I think, is just leading to a really dangerous play for everybody,” Winston said. “If you jump over the center, the jumper is in a really bad spot. He can land on his head. I think the guys that are getting jumped over are going to end up getting hurt, with those guys landing on them. So I’ll be very interested to see what they’ll do there. I think something probably needs to be done.”
Twenty-four of the 32 teams would need to approve the change for it to take place.
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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at edholm@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!
