So, Did the Kickoff Rules Actually Work?

[AdamJT13]

I haven't seen the video of McKay speaking, so I don't know if he misspoke or was misquoted, but kickoff returns dropped *to* 53 percent, not *by* 53 percent.

Look again at the stats posted by joseephuss --

2010
2539 kickoffs
2033 kickoff returns
80.07% returned

2011
2572 kickoffs
1375 kickoff returns
53.46% returned <----------------


The number of kickoff returns dropped by 32.4 percent (from 2,033 to 1,375), and the number of concussions on kickoffs reportedly dropped by 40 percent. So, not only were there fewer opportunities for concussions on kickoff returns, the rate of concussions on kickoff returns also dropped.

So, yes, the rule change achieved its purpose. Whether reducing the risk of concussions for players was worth reducing the excitement for fans is a matter of opinion.

 

[Hoofbite]

I haven't seen the video of McKay speaking, so I don't know if he misspoke or was misquoted, but kickoff returns dropped *to* 53 percent, not *by* 53 percent.

Look again at the stats posted by joseephuss --

2010
2539 kickoffs
2033 kickoff returns
80.07% returned

2011
2572 kickoffs
1375 kickoff returns
53.46% returned <----------------


The number of kickoff returns dropped by 32.4 percent (from 2,033 to 1,375), and the number of concussions on kickoffs reportedly dropped by 40 percent. So, not only were there fewer opportunities for concussions on kickoff returns, the rate of concussions on kickoff returns also dropped.

So, yes, the rule change achieved its purpose. Whether reducing the risk of concussions for players was worth reducing the excitement for fans is a matter of opinion.

Makes sense that it would be dropped to 53%.

Not sure the numbers joseephus posted is accounting for kickoffs OOB.

I tallied up the returns and it came out to 1969 in 2010.

I wanna know how many concussions came on kick returns specifically. I think that'd be interesting to know.

 

[AdamJT13]

I tallied up the returns and it came out to 1969 in 2010.

http://www.pro-football-reference.com/years/2010/

Pro Football Reference has 2,033.