Kicking off controversy
NFL to consider moving touchbacks to 25-yard line
Posted: Sunday March 14, 1999 10:27 AM
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Dallas Cowboys special teams coach Joe Avezzano: "They are legislating mediocrity. The attempt, in my mind, is to devalue the kicking game." Brian Bahr/Allsport |
By Greg Auman, CNN/SI
ATLANTA -- The NFL's competition committee, hoping to encourage fewer
touchbacks on kickoff returns, will introduce a proposal at the annual
owners meeting in Phoenix this week to have the ball placed at the 25-yard
line rather than the 20 after touchbacks.
The percentage of kickoffs returned decreased from 88.4 percent in 1994 to
80.3 percent last year, and the committee is hoping the five-yard change
will have less teams booming kickoffs into the end zone and settling for
touchbacks.
"Why penalize a guy for doing his job well?" asked Vikings special teams
coach Gary Zauner, whose team led the NFL with 40 touchbacks last year.
"When Nolan Ryan starts striking out too many batters, do you tell him to
pitch with his left hand? I thought everything was about the pursuit of
excellence here."
Zauner said that given the choice, he would rather see the league force
teams to return kicks than award them an additional 5 yards for taking a
knee in the end zone.
"Don't allow them to have touchbacks -- to me, that would be a better
rule," Zauner said. "If the ball goes out the back of the end zone, OK, let
it come out at the 20, but if it's in the end zone, then make them bring it
out. That's better than rewarding them for basically being chicken."
Zauner isn't the only coach concerned about the potential change, which
would take away some of the advantage of having a strong-legged kicker on
roster.
"They are legislating mediocrity," Dallas Cowboys special
teams coach Joe Avezzano said Friday. "The attempt, in my mind, is to
devalue the kicking game. I marvel at the amount of time that's spent
trying to mess with the kicking game. You're going to be penalized for
having a strong kicker."
The Cowboys pinned their opponents deeper than any team in the NFL last
year, with the average drive against them starting on the 22.4-yard line.
By decreasing the value of a touchback 5 yards for the kicking team, the
NFL could change the general philosophy of kicking deep and being content
to have an opposing drive start on the 20.
"Assuming you have a kicker who can kick it into the end zone -- and that's
a luxury most teams don't have -- you may now have to re-evaluate what to
do," said Avezzano, whose Cowboys had 80.4 percent of their kickoffs
returned last year, very close to the league average.
The Baltimore Ravens
had the best starting field position in the league last year, starting from
the 30.7-yard line. The Indianapolis Colts had the
league's worst average start, on the 23.2-yard line.
"If you're against a team that by average starts past the 25-yard line,
then by the numbers you're still ahead of the game taking the touchback,"
Avezzano said. "If the other team is starting their average drive on the
30, which the league leader will do, you'd still kick it in the end zone.
If they only get it to the 23, maybe you now try to take something off of
it. You'll have to play around with it. Every time they change something,
there's no guideline to go by, so you just have to experiment."
The league has tweaked the kickoff in the past -- in 1994, the spot of the
kickoff was moved back from the 35 to the 30 and the kicking tee was
lowered from three inches to one inch. This put more balls in play and
brought a record number of kicks return for touchdowns.
"They're always messing with the kicking game," Avezzano said. "Anytime it
gets really good, they try to disrupt it so it doesn't have an impact on
the game. When they moved the kickoff back and lowered the tee, they got
what they wanted in the first year -- there were a ton more returns than
ever before," he said. "But now, the kickers have adjusted, so your
stronger-legged guys still get it into the end zone."
This proposed change could possibly backfire, however -- knowing that
touchbacks are worth an extra 5 yards, return men may be more likely to
take a knee on kicks that might have been taken out in the past.
"Realistically and statistically, if the ball is kicked into the end zone,
most people should stay in with the ball," Avezzano said. "The chances are
you're not going to get back to the 20. Sometimes your great returners will
take it out from anywhere, because they're great. But the average guy,
league-wide, week after week, should stay in."
Across the league, there's a great disparity in the number of touchbacks
teams amass. The Vikings had 40 of their kickoffs taken for touchbacks --
only 64.9 percent were returned -- while the Pittsburgh Steelers had
just one kick downed in the end zone, with the other 67 brought back on
returns.
That stark contrast doesn't translate to field position, however. The
Vikings' opponents started their average drive on the 27.1-yard line; the
Steelers' opponents began on the 27.2-yard line.
Whether touchbacks are the norm or a rare treat for NFL teams, the proposed
change would force special teams coaches across the league to re-think
their philosophies on both sides of kickoffs, and for Avezzano, that change
isn't a good one.
"They don't come around asking special teams coaches what they think," he
said. "I understand that the bottom line is the entertainment value of the
ballgame, but sometimes, it can be overkill."
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