NFL News and Rumors: Proposed Kickoff Rules Could Change Football for the Worst

The only thing worse than no football at all, which looks like a definite possibility, is football without kickoff returns.

The kickoff return is like the 360 slam, the grand slam or the five-car wreck. It's football's most exciting play.

Within the past few years, the struggles of former NFL players after football have been profiled in sports media. By now, it's almost common knowledge that playing pro football is a cause of brain, neck and spine damage.

Because of that, the NFL has been taking steps to make football more safe.

The most recent step? Moving the kickoff line five yards, from the 30 to the 35, and even that, apparently, was a compromise. The NFL wanted to eliminate the kickoff all together, according to The Sporting News.

The compromise however, would essentially eliminate the kickoff anyway.

If the proposed rule change is put into effect, NFL fans will see more kick returners being pinned in the end zone, more touchbacks and less of those game-changing, breakout runs that keep NFL fans on the edge of their seats and glued to the TV.

Already, one the leagues most successful coaches, Bill Belichick, has told ESPN that he does not support the league's proposal to change the kickoff rule because it would eliminate that excitement.

Belichick also noted that the proposal is complicated. Certainly more complicated than the way it is presented here.

The proposal will more than likely be challenged by NFL teams who have spent millions of dollars on players who's only job is to return the football. The new rule would make those guys virtually worthless.

Regardless, the NFL is in a curious position.

Right now, the league is engaged in a labor dispute with the players' association, partly because the owners suggested extending the season, which the players did not agree to out of safety concerns.

Now the league proposes a rule change to keep the players safe which takes a lot of excitement out of the game, leaving the fans unsatisfied.