A national football organization is banning kickoffs, but it's not the NFL.
Pop Warner youth football is eliminating the play to cut down on serious injuries. The ban only impacts the league's youngest players.
Right now, the three youngest groups of players can no longer use kick-offs. The goal is to get rid of what experts call one of the most dangerous plays in all of sports.
They're little bodies taking big hits: Kids receiving the ball at a stand-still, then getting tackled at full speed and head-on.
For the younger Pop Warner youth football players, those hits won’t happen again.
“As a head coach, number 1 is the safety of your team,” said Zack Bellin, who coaches his son Xavier for the Mandarin Athletic Association's Pop Warner team.
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“Personally I think it takes away from the game a little bit, but I understand the safety concerns as well,” Bellin said.
“I think it will help the game make it safer, but it's just I don't like how we don't get the ball,” said Xavier.
League officials say the kick off ban only affects the three Pop Warner age divisions for kids five to ten years old.
Instead of the kick off, the ball will be placed at the 35-yard line to start each half and after each score starting this fall.
But Bellin said most teams already don't have any kick off plays in their playbook.
“Ninety-nine percent of the time, we're doing onside kicks anyway,” Bellin said. “We want to grow the game. How do we do that? Make it safer and I think Pop Warner is going in the right direction.”
As for the older kids playing Pop Warner, league officials say they will study the results of the upcoming season with the younger kids and possibly expand the rule to the older divisions.
Cox Media Group
