CFL unlikely to alter kickoff rules this off-season
By Dave Naylor
One year after the National Football League drastically altered its kickoff rules in an effort to strike a balance between safety and entertainment, it doesn’t appear the Canadian Football League will be following suit.
At least not this off-season.
That’s the sense coming out of the CFL winter meetings in Charlotte, N.C. last week, where possible rule changes were discussed and debated by the league’s rules committee.
A consensus exists that CFL injury data from the past season doesn’t support a need for changing the framework of kickoffs, as injuries are mostly non-contact and soft-tissue in nature and are not being incurred at rates out of line with other areas of the game.
The NFL adopted its new kickoff format last March in response to criticism that too often teams were simply kicking the ball through the end zone, resulting in just 17 per cent being returned. That number jumped to 29 per cent under the NFL’s new format this season, and improved overall drive-starting position.
In the CFL, there are an average of 7.5 kickoffs per game with the vast majority being returned.
The impetus for considering change in the CFL was driven not to improve kickoffs, but purely by concern over safety.
