NFL to mull kickoffs from 35

Reducing injuries behind proposal to move tee 5 yards up

The NFL's competition committee will propose several interesting rules changes to owners at the league's spring meetings that begin Monday in New Orleans.

The committee recommends moving kickoffs to the 35-yard line from the 30 and bringing out touchbacks to the 25 instead of the 20. It also wants to outlaw any wedge on returns and make it illegal for any player other than the kicker to start more than 5 yards behind the ball.

The idea is to reduce injuries.

Altanta Falcons president Rich McKay, who chaired the committee, said Wednesday that too many injuries are happening on kickoffs.

"The injury rate on the kickoff remains a real concern for us and for the players," McKay said, adding the proposed rules would be "a pretty major change to the kickoff play itself."

Other touchbacks wouldn't be changed. For instance, a punt going into the end zone would be brought out to the 20.

Another change the owners will vote on involves a modification of instant replay. All scoring plays will be reviewable to the replay official upstairs. If the replay official thinks it warrants a review by the referee, he will call down, and the referee will look at it.

As it stands now, the replay official is used in the last two minutes of the first half, the end of the game and overtime.

"The coaches wouldn't need to challenge," McKay said. "All those (scoring) plays would be confirmed (by the replay official). If the replay official decides that play should be reviewed, then the referee would continue to have the supervision of review.

"We would also propose in conjunction with that change the elimination of the third challenge. It hasn't been used very much at all in the last four years."

The committee also is making a recommendation involving player safety.

If the rule is passed, there will be eight categories of a defenseless player: the quarterback in the act of or just after throwing a pass; the receiver attempting to catch a pass, which includes the receiver who hasn't completed a catch or had time to protect himself; a runner who's already in the grasp of a tackler and whose forward progress has been stopped; a kickoff or punt returner attempting to field a kick in the air; a player on the ground at the end of a play; a kicker or punter during the kick or during the return; a quarterback at any time after a change of possession; and a player who receives a blindside block.

"We just want to be sure that we write the rules very clearly and that all eight of those categories have the exact same protection," McKay said.