President Donald Trump referred to as into Pat McAfee’s present on ESPN on Tuesday, discussing his admiration for the nation’s veterans on Veterans Day, the impending finish of the authorities shutdown, the function of sports activities in his political life and the huge cash in faculty sports activities.
But there was one matter that really obtained the president fired up: The NFL’s new kickoff format.
“I hate the kickoff,” Trump mentioned to protestations from McAfee.
“I feel it’s so horrible. I feel it’s so demeaning, and I feel it hurts the recreation. It hurts the pageantry. I’ve informed that to Roger Goodell, and I don’t assume it’s any safer. I imply, you continue to have guys crashing into one another, and … it’s the reverse of what the recreation (is meant to be). The ball is in the air, and no person’s shifting. It’s presupposed to be when the ball is in the air, when the ball is performed, you’re supposed to maneuver.
“You walk in and the pageantry of the game is so badly hurt. And I don’t think NFL, you know, they don’t, they do what they want to do, but I don’t think they’ll change.”
Trump has been a frequent critic of the NFL’s revamped kickoff format, adopted for the first time final season in an effort to lower the intense collisions that continuously resulted in accidents.
NCS has reached out to the league for touch upon Trump’s newest criticism on the so-called dynamic kickoff.
Under the previous guidelines, the kicking group began at its 35-yard line and tried to kick the ball as far downfield as attainable to provide their protection a greater likelihood of stopping the offense removed from the finish zone. Meanwhile, the receiving group tries to maneuver the ball so far as they will up the subject. With two groups working at one another at prime pace, collisions between gamers have been usually devastating.
The new model nonetheless sees the ball kicked from the kicking group’s 35-yard line, however each participant on the kicking group apart from the kicker himself now strains up with a minimum of one foot on the returning group’s 40-yard line.
Players should additionally wait to maneuver till the ball hits the floor or is touched by a returner inside the 20-yard line. Any kick that’s caught or lands in the touchdown zone should be returned, whereas any kick that falls wanting the touchdown zone will likely be dominated a touchback and noticed at the returning group’s 40-yard line. If a kick hits the touchdown zone after which goes into the finish zone, it must be returned or downed by the receiving group.
Among different issues, it principally means gamers are nearer collectively and will not be colliding into one another with as a lot pace.
Trump has complained about the rule nearly because it first debuted. But on Tuesday, he went even additional along with his lamentations.
“I hope college football doesn’t change, because the power of the kickoff is, we’re so beautiful, and now it, you know, I don’t want to say what it reminds me of, because I’ll get myself into big trouble,” Trump mentioned. “It is not football, and I have no idea what you guys – you guys may disagree with me. I don’t think it’s going to help.”
“It’s so bad. It’s so bad. It’s so unromantic, and it just is demeaning to football. I don’t think they have a right to do that to the game,” Trump went on to say. “You know, the game is so important. I don’t think the people that approve that. I don’t think anybody has the right to do that to the game. And I hope college doesn’t change, and I hope that someday the NFL will stop it and go back to football.”
The league has maintained that the new system is safer than the previous and in addition leads to extra thrilling performs.
Kickoffs have lengthy been certainly one of the most harmful performs in the recreation and have been 4 occasions extra prone to trigger a concussion than a play that concerned working or passing, in keeping with data from the NFL. Since the change in format, the league has been buoyed by the early outcomes.
In January, the NFL published data from the 2024 season that confirmed a “significant decrease in concussions.” As supposed, the new rule slowed common participant speeds, which led to a decrease concussion price – down 43% from 2021-2023.
The NFL mentioned returns elevated 57% in the 2024 common season and that there have been seven kickoffs returned for touchdowns – the most since 2021.