Crossing Broad
If the NFL wants to ban ugly plays that no one can stop, plays that come with a potential injury risk, let’s start with “dirty ball” kickoffs. What the hell are these:
Joshua Karty gave Tank Bigsby and John Metchie fits on Sunday. It felt like the Birds didn’t start outside the 20 the entire first half.
I can’t hate the strategy. Kickers spent all training camp working on “dirty balls” so that the opposing offense wouldn’t start at the 35 yard line.
Here’s the thing, if we’re putting the play under the same microscope the NFL puts the Tush Push under, this play should be voted out this summer. The NFL wants offense their way. They changed the kickoff rules to get more action. This is doing the exact opposite. The Eagles started multiple drives barely outside of their endzone and they stalled. These kicks aren’t producing runbacks either when a kick returner now has to become a second baseman. If we’re going to treat everything like the Tush Push, I want my kicks end-over-end and high up in the air. None of this line drive knuckleball shit. We’re talking about an oblong-shaped ball that you don’t know where it’ll bounce next, unless you’re Allen Iverson:
Not to mention, what if a guy is fielding the kick, bobbles it a little, and all of sudden looks up and he’s got 10 dudes in his grill? It’ll look like Johnny Knoxville vs. USC’s special teams:
Don’t get me wrong, this is better than having touchback after touchback. I don’t know the answer. I’m just more calling out the NFL’s blatant hypocrisy with what should and shouldn’t be banned. Look over here at the Tush Push! Don’t look at the fact the kickoffs are a clown show. Donald Trump is even calling it “sissy football.“
It’s not a football play. Matt Prater said it best when talking with Noah Trister at WGAURadio.com:
“I think it takes away when you have a good kicker because good kickers, you separate yourself by being able to kick it higher and farther and placing it, and the hang time and all that,” Bills kicker Matt Prater said. “But now, hang time’s irrelevant and distance is irrelevant. So for young strong guys, I think it takes away their strengths.”
So what’re teams going to do now, carry three special teams guys? One punter, a kicker, and guy who is good at dynamic kickoffs? That’ll never happen. We still want to watch guys bomb 60 yard field goals and we want returns. There has to be a good middle ground we can find that won’t make teams waste a roster spot. The average start of a drive is still around the 30 yard line through two weeks, which is similar to last year’s average field position according to Trister. It’ll be interesting to see what happens to field position as more kickers learn the dirty ball technique and more returners adapt to the new style. But...
