Absolutely. This rule is going to really screw over a few teams in crucial situations at some point. Opposing players are going to be trying to rip off helmets under piles and defenses are going to be going high in an attempt to pop the helmet off.
It's a violent game, but let's face it, that's why we all love it. Trying to eliminate kickoffs is like watching middle school football where they don't punt/kick off. That's boring. But I still miss the jump ball in basketball, instead of the possession arrow. I'm old-school like that.
Actually happened twice on same drive. Sadly, after the first time the equipment guys tightened up the straps and it happened again.
Usually when a new rule gets passed its easy to figure out what they are trying to accomplish. This thing is a mess....they make it easier to kick it out of the end zone, but then they penalize you for doing it? Really smart, fellas.
Speaking of new rules: has anyone seen a CFB player penalized for "loss of TD" when showboating? I refer to Brad Wing's reversal last year. Were there any violators who were NOT penalized? Because I saw no other rulings since that game--and I cannot believe that nobody "taunted" with all the TD's since that day. Of course, we all saw the level of 'taunting' by Wing: on a scale of 100, his taunt was, maybe, a 003!
Nobody else taunted en route to the end zone in the same way that Bama never held for an entire season.
No but seeing a freakin BOWLING GREEN player do the chomp and a throat slash after scoring to tie the game at 14 in the third quarter was priceless.
With these Australian punters, I just wish they'd let us opt to "free kick" instead of doing a traditional kickoff.
