The NFL owners passed a rule in late May to help mitigate collisions and damage taken on kickoffs.
But, from the echoes coming throughout the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex, neither the players nor the coaches had any say in how their game should be played.
The new rule essentially turns the NFL kickoffs into college kickoffs. Meaning, any ball in the air on a free kick -- a standard kickoff or a post-safety free kick -- can be fair-caught from the inside of that team's 25-yard line, and the ball will be placed on the 25-yard line regardless. So, not only can a ball be kicked into or through the endzone to result in a touchback, any fair catch of that type will also give off the same result and allow the incoming offense to start its drive at its own 25.
The change will be for the 2023 season as it stands and surely will be revisited by next offseason, but for the time being it has ruffled the feathers of the specialists it is impacting directly.
“I kept my nose out of it. I’ve played a long time, seen a lot of ball, and I figured with them speaking up that they would listen to us, but it sounds like they didn’t," Gunner Olszewski said after Thursday's mandatory minicamp session on the South Side. "A bunch of people who are trying to rid of our part of the game, that’s how we feel about it. Special teams, because it’s ‘dangerous.’ Football’s a dangerous game. You can’t ever take that out of it. I hate it for the game, but like I said, it’s the rule now and that’s what it is. Just rolling with it.”
According to the approved proposal, the "reason," verbatim, comes to two words: "Player safety."
Here is the approved proposal, in its entirety:
Here’s the full proposal owners approved today. pic.twitter.com/GcmLgGljw2
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) May 23, 2023
This boils down to the league's effort to reduce the amount of concussions, an injury that has become more prevalent within the sport. Data released from the NFL in February showed an 18% jump in concussions sustained in the regular season in 2022. There were 149 concussions sustained across 271 games, which was up from the 126 in 2021. From 2018 to 2020, the league average per season was at 130.
According to data from Sports Illustrated, 19 players sustained concussions on approximately 2,700 kickoffs in 2022, up from the 14 in 2021 and 10 in 2020. Do the math, and approximately 99.3% of kickoff plays did not result in a concussion.
"There’s people in lab coats, people that have never played football, making decisions on how we play the game," Olszewski said. "Do I agree with (it)? No, but when they set a rule in place I’m not going to complain about it, I’m just going to play how the game is. Personally I don’t like it but it doesn’t matter if I don’t like it. Those are my thoughts on it.”
The new rule will change how teams approach kickoff returns, no doubt, but it will also change how teams kick to the receiving team. A squib kick does not fall under the rules of what can be fair-caught, so an early prevailing thought is teams could utilize more squib kicks to ensue a live ball.
“You can’t un-dangerous the game of football. It’s football. We know what we sign up for," Olszewski said. "Personally I don’t like hearing these guys who don’t sound like they understand football make the decisions on our game. The (NFLPA) doesn’t give us a chance to vote on anything like that. Like I said, that’s all out of our hands. Y’all are getting me to complain about it, but the rule is the rule so I’m not looking to complain about it, but I hate it, I disagree with it, and I think it stinks for guys who are teamers and try to go out there and make jobs. They’re making chances away from us.”
Olszewski was an All-Pro punt returner for the Patriots in 2020, and has been a consistent presence as a special-teamer since entering the league in 2019 and has always operated under the "old" way. As for Calvin Austin, who was an all-conference returner at Memphis in 2021, this rule change comes as familiar, as it has been the norm since 2018 in college football.
Austin told me he didn't have much of an opinion on the rule change because those same rules are what he's used to operating under. He added that returners will "do the best we can with it."
“The whole game of football isn’t safe, so if that rule saves one person from having a concussion then I guess it’s a good thing," Austin said. "They’re doing it for the best interests of the player so we just have to believe that it’s going to be in our best interest. That play is a full-speed, a lot of collisions, but in the big scheme of things that’s a lot of plays in football, but like I said, if that can stop one person -- whoever that is -- from getting hurt and prevent it, I’m all for it. It’s cool.”
Steelers special teams coordinator Danny Smith has nearly three decades of experience as a coach, and has been coaching special teams in the NFL since 1995. He is also a member of a committee of eight special teams coaches that has met with NFL Executive Vice President of Football Operations Troy Vincent for input.
The issue, as Smith said Tuesday, is that committee still doesn't have a vote on what rules are changed or left unchanged.
"Honestly we don't have a vote," Smith said. "We press the issues, we had players join us in that kind of thing, it was good, it was very solid between us coaches and between the players and their special teams guys, but, man, in the honestly of it, we don't have a vote. We had meetings after meetings, we had Zoom meetings, we went to Philadelphia and met, we went to NFL Films and met, we had Troy Vincent in that meeting, we had the doctors in those meetings. It wasn't no joke. It wasn't just a bull s*** group of guys sitting around on a Zoom. It was our livelihood. It was serious. We did a great job with it, all the coaches did, and had the other 24 coaches join in some Zooms so we've got all 32 guys representing but it all originates with this eight-man committee, and then everybody gets involved and they have a say as well, and you say your piece."
The NFL's concussion protocol was modified in October in the wake of the handling of Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa and his concussion sustained in a September game against Buffalo. Tagovailoa exited the game in the first half with what the team deemed a "head injury," as he got to his feet and stumbled before being taken out. He was re-inserted after halftime, and coach Mike McDaniel said Tagovailoa sustained a lower-back injury that was exacerbated by the hit and caused him to stumble. An NFLPA investigation found the Dolphins cleared him to play after the team doctor and an unaffiliated neurotrama consultant (UNC) were allowed to advise. That UNC was fired Oct. 1 after Tagovailoa sustained another blow to the back of the head as he was tackled against the Bengals, causing him to lock his arms and hands.
For as awful as what happened to Tagovailoa is, was, and would be regardless of player, those plays happened on regular offensive series; not on special teams.
"This was our complaint, and we had video to verify it. You can't see the concussion on that kickoff," Smith said. "And the question is, did it occur on the series before that? Don't attribute that to special teams. So the numbers -- and I'm not saying it's a perfect world and I'm not vilifying those doctors that come up with that information and stuff -- but it is on tape. There's some of you saying, 'well, where's the concussion at? Well, 24 is concussed, blah, blah blah.' No he ain't. Look at him. But, in fact, when he got tested on the side he was. But he had no contact on the kickoff. It was a touchback, and it was no contact, so it didn't occur there, but it got placed there because that's where it came out."
Smith was asked, word-for-word: "Does this rule make the game safer?"
He took long pauses in giving this answer:
"I'm being honest with you guys, OK? And I really am, and I was supposed to say no. ... But ... And I'm going to leave it at that," Smith said.
This boils down to an unfair stigma placed on special teams with regards to concussions.
I brought that question to Smith, and whether he thinks that stigma is unfair:
"I do. I do. I do. I do," Smith said. "But that's what we attack first. You know where we're going second. You know why? Because we've got all of those (tracking) devices on O-line and D-line with the head things. That's where they're going next. I'm for making the game safer. It's just that special teams is an easy place to attack for some reason, and they'll move on. They'll move on. But sometimes you've got to give up something to get something, and maybe we gave that up -- we didn't give that up, we fought very hard. That's probably a bad choice of words on my part. We fought very hard, although, again, we don't have a vote. We don't have a vote. They're going to say, 'oh, that's bull s*** and rah rah rah rah.' We don't have a vote."
I also brought that question to Olszewski after Thursday's practice:
“Definitely, yeah," Olszewski said. "They’re saying, ‘well, there’s more concussions in this phase than in that phase,’ and maybe that’s true, but it’s a phase where guys run 40 yards and head first into each other. The NFL’s seen us. Those plays have been around forever, and it’s almost (like) they’re trying to blame it on the play, but you blame it on football when you come back to it. We’re football players, we know what the risk is when you strap up a helmet and write next to the dotted line when we sign for millions of dollars, we know exactly what we’re signing up for. I think they’re trying to safety up a game that, at its best, will never be safe.”
