This week, the NFL announced a pretty controversial rule change to the game’s kickoffs, now allowing a receiving team to call fair catch, which would result in an automatic touchback with the offense beginning its possession at the 25-yard line. It’s a big change that was made in the name of player safety, but not everyone is a proponent of the new rule.
This week, Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh made it clear that he and the Ravens as an organization were against the rule change. In fact, Harbaugh even seems to think that the rule change will create more high-speed collisions on a kickoff, not fewer.
“The fair catch rule, we had a chance to weigh in on that with all the special teams coaches,” Harbaugh said according to Pro Football Talk. “We had a long talk and discussion about that. We weren’t for it. We voted against it. We think it’s going to create more high-speed head trauma than not having it in there. That’s our position on it. But we’ll see. They want to give it a shot and take a look at it.”
Harbaugh did not elaborate on why he felt it would create more high-speed head trauma, but he is certainly not alone in standing against the rule change.
