Former XFL Rules Maker Destroyed The NFL For The Amount of Special Teams Injuries They Continue To Have (TWEETS)

February 10, 2022, 12:12pm EST (Updated: December 14, 2022, 11:07am)By Darrelle Lincoln

Despite what the National Football League has tried to do to make things safer for player, more changes reportedly could be coming to NFL kickoffs and punts after an uptick in special teams injuries this season.

According to ESPN’s Kevin Seifert, the league “has issued a significant call to action in response to disproportionately high injury rates on special teams.” As part of the NFL’s annual health and safety meeting with reporters covering Super Bowl LVI, the league reported that while concussions continue to decrease overall, they still occur more often on punts and kickoffs.

Chief medical officer Dr. Allen Sills said that one in six NFL concussions happened on special teams this past season while adding that special teams plays accounted for 30 percent of ACL tears and 29 percent of lower extremity muscle injuries.

Sam Schwartzstein, the former XFL Director of Football Operations, Innovation, and Strategy, decided to put the NFL in a body bag in response to the many injuries the league is dealing with.

Schwartzstein helped create many of the rules of the 2.0 version of the XFL and noted that they 400+ kickoffs and had zero injuries because of how they handled things.

It make sense to have this come out 2 years after the first televised XFL2020 Kickoff.

We created a Kickoff alternative that had 0 injuries in 400+ live kickoffs and a 90% return rate.

Here's a thread on how to create new rules that attack the disease and not the symptom https://t.co/7ax5GAyfbu
— Sam Schwartzstein (@schwartzsteins) February 8, 2022

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First thing we asked was "What problem are we solving for?"

Kickoffs are 6% of plays but make up 18% of injuries, you're 3x more likely to get hurt on this play than any other play.

Normal thinking tells you to have less kickoffs (increase touchbacks) or no kickoffs. Not us
— Sam Schwartzstein (@schwartzsteins) February 8, 2022

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We wanted to see what was causing the injuries. What about the kickoff is so dangerous that you're 3x more likely to get hurt?

Opposing players start 10 yards apart, sprint for 35 yards, then make a head on collision, something we called High Velocity Impact Plays (HVIP).
— Sam Schwartzstein (@schwartzsteins) February 8, 2022

The hypothesis was to look at plays when the ball is caught and see where the coverage and return team ended up.

We watched hundreds of kickoffs and 95% of the time the players were all 3-7 yards apart at the 30 and 35 yard line, facing each other. Let's start the play there!
— Sam Schwartzstein (@schwartzsteins) February 8, 2022

So why do we start 10 yards apart to sprint 35 yards to create a collision? Because of the onside kicks. Onside kicks account for 1% of all kicks.

BUT most onside kicks (99% of OS kicks) the coverage and return teams are lined up completely different than normal.
— Sam Schwartzstein (@schwartzsteins) February 8, 2022

For 1% of 1% of kicks we line up 10 yards apart and sprint 35 yards to create the High Velocity Impact.

We removed the surprise onside from the game and let teams elect to kick it deep or to onside kick (We did not do the 4th and 15 try, don't like it..thats a different thread)
— Sam Schwartzstein (@schwartzsteins) February 8, 2022

From this concept we pitched it to health and safety partners, coaches, players, TV execs.

We created KPIs:
Injuries: As safe or safer than scrimmage plays
Returns: 90% Returns (NFL <50% Returns)
Avg Field Position: >-28, <-40
Fan Feedback: 85% approval
— Sam Schwartzstein (@schwartzsteins) February 8, 2022

And then we tested it over 400 times between 5 different testing sessions. We tweaked it enough to make it fit all our goals.

I did a roadshow and met with every coaching staff and then every team with their coaches to go over the rule.
— Sam Schwartzstein (@schwartzsteins) February 8, 2022

As a start-up league we needed to have buy in from everyone to make the play work.
We ended up with

0 injuries on ~100 kickoffs
93% return rate.
-30 Avg Field position, 2 TD returns
95% approval rating from fans
— Sam Schwartzstein (@schwartzsteins) February 8, 2022

Making the game safer is not easy. It's not throwing things on the wall and hoping they stick, or is it old guys in a smoke filled room kvetching it out.

Its understanding problems, success metrics, and executing a plan to get a result most people can be happy with.
— Sam Schwartzstein (@schwartzsteins) February 8, 2022

Back in 2018, kickoffs were adjusted to eliminate the running starts of cover men and remove most double-team blocks. The very next year, the league then eliminated most blindside blocks in a move that was expected to improve the safety of punts.

“We are pleased with the concussion numbers, but we feel it’s not the full picture and we really want to aggressively reduce and work to eliminate avoidable head contact,” Sills said.