It's no secret that the NFL is attempting to limit high-speed collisions, especially as they pertain to kickoffs.
Sean Gregory of TIME Magazine indicates in this week's cover story that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is floating the idea that instead of kickoffs, the kicking team would be given the ball at its own 30-yard line with a 4th-and-15 situation.
Essentially, this is an effort to give the "kicking" team a way to retain possession as the onside kick currently does.
I'm not sure whether to call this blasphemy or innovation. The onside kick, ironically, is one of the few things keeping kickoffs in the game. By giving the "kicking" team the ball with a 4th-and-15 situation, the onside kick would become obsolete.
Unlike most ideas to eliminate the kickoff, I'm willing to play the wait-and-see game with this proposal. The one major criticism that I have is that it should be more like 4th-and-20, making it more difficult to go for the first down. The innovation would also make end-of-the-game scenarios far more interesting than the onside kick ever did.
Don't look for the kickoff to vanish in the next year, but this could be a viable replacement to the kickoff, and I'm willing to consider it seriously.
