This is all DEBO's fault. His 100yrd return for a touch down proved a slow dumb *** LB can return it then nearly anyone can. It's just to easy to do so let's change it so NO-ONE can do it.
Deebo's INT was one of my all time favorite plays. It wasn't a kickoff though.
Football was created with three facets of the game. Originally each facet had equal difficulty / power of the game, making strategy all that much more important. They each complimented each other.
Football actually developed from rugby, which, does have a kickoff system. Rugby, btw, uses the same players the entire game for all 'facets' of the game. Football didn't really start with this three phase balance that you speak. The clock in rugby rarely stops...no first downs, no stop after a tackle then going to huddle up and call a new play, etc. The only time the game flow really stops is for penalty, score, ball out of play, or injury. I don't know the precise mechanics of the first official football rules...and not really important...I'm just using your quote to share some really epic Cliff Clavenisms. Just cuz I felt like it.
FAST FORWARD
You now currently have two facets handicapped beyond compliment. Taking any, but easiest is kicking, out of the game will make the game way way way less attractive and nearly unbearable.
Do you remember when we used to have that thing called the coffin corner? Kickers got darn good at putting the ball inside the five and skittering out of bounds. The NFL hated that so they made kicking it out of bounds illegal. The wanted more returns. Kickers just got stronger and learned to kick t he ball through the endzone, into the stands and out into the parking lot whenever they darn well felt like it. The NFL backed up the kickoff line to encourage more returns. It wasn't until the specter of lawsuits over CTE did the NFL start trying to figure out how to "limit collisions". That is, get rid of returns. So, they moved the kickoff back to where kickers could put it out of the endzone again. And now you see this "beta rule"..its clear they want to get rid of the returns but don't have an answer to the biggest bugaboo as pointed out above, onside kicks. If you don't line up for the kick, you can't surprise with the onside kick. Fans want the returns, NFL attorneys don't.
REALITY
All this rules changing / offensive power dominance / refereei-ing.............. Could have all been prevented if the Officiating was called cleanly & fairly. BUT doing that would create to much risk in the outcome of games. GREED is the father of change within the NFL. If you think this will lessen the commercial breaks you will be mistaken as somehow it will actually add a couple more slots to the game.
Officiating can't be called cleanly and fairly because of instant replay and the idiotic goal of perfection. Replay has rendered the rules to be written to cover things that happen at 1/30th of a second...faster than the eye can see. It is impossible for the onfield refs to make certain calls because they can't see what replay shows. Before replay, bad calls happened and were part of the game. Hell, it was part of the fan experience...arguing over the play. Replay has driven ridiculously complicated rules to cover things that can only be seen upon review.
I absolutely agree with you that greed drives this league. Its a company and like all companies, profit matters. So does consumer perception. Don't believe me? I give you Ray Rice. He was a 2 game suspension because he sold jerseys until the video came out and consumer perception went to outrage. Now the guy is out of the league (which is correct, but that was what the first ruling should have been before all the outrage.) So, what is driving the narrative on kickoffs isn't commercial breaks, its the threat of litigation and, ultimately, consumer perception. Do you think mommies and daddies are going to raise little johnny to play and watch football if the NFL is overshadowed by a CTE lawsuit? Yes, it is all about the money and has been since the beginning of the SB era at least.
