Chiefs' Andy Reid Criticizes Fair Catch Rule Change: NFL Could Become 'Flag Football'

Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid is pushing back against the NFL's decision to change the rule that will allow teams to start at the 25-yard line if they call for a fair catch on a kickoff.

Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Reid thinks the rule change is a step toward making the NFL into flag football.

Team owners voted Tuesday to approve the kickoff change in response to a recent surge in concussions on returns. Teams had started to utilize pop-up kicks in an effort to pin the opposing offenses deep in their own territory.

Rich McKay, chairman of the NFL's competition committee, explained the decision to adjust the kickoff rules was based on injury data the league looked at when college football implemented the fair-catch rule.

"The kickoff play for us has been a play that has had a lot of changes for us over the years, all really driven by health and safety," he told NFL Network's Judy Battista. "The concussion rate on the play has gone up. It's gone up because the ball is being returned more by kicks that are being hung inside the 5-yard line. College made this rule change in maybe 2018 or 2019. We looked at their data and said, you know what, this is the right thing to do now."

McKay and Jeff Miller, the NFL's head executive of health and safety, told Battista they expect the rate of kickoff returns will drop 7 percent with the new rule.

NFL Network's Tom Pelissero noted special teams coordinators around the league "unanimously opposed" the rule change.

Per Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer, 19 players suffered concussions on approximately 2,700 kickoff returns during the 2022 season, an increase of five from the previous year and nine from 2020.

Breer did note 11 of the 19 concussions occurred when a return man brought the ball out of the end zone. Keisean Nixon of the Green Bay Packers was the only return man who suffered a concussion after bringing the ball out.

The rule is going into place on a one-year trial basis for the 2023 season.

College football implemented the fair-catch rule on kickoffs before the 2018 season. The rule allows teams to start a drive at their own 25 as long as the player calls for the fair catch anywhere inside his team's 25-yard line.