“If you don’t play the game of football, there’s not going to be football injuries.”
That concussions on kickoffs essentially doubled over the past few years is noteworthy but, still, it’s 19 concussions out of a play performed about 2,700 times last season. As part of their battle against the rules change, Breer reported that coordinators determined 11 of the 19 concussions were sustained on a kickoff that reached the end zone; the rules change will do nothing to prevent those from occurring.
Moreover, Leavitt said, “I think the issue is that a lot of the concussions came from the preseason games. It’s a different product in the preseason vs. what’s out there in the regular season in terms of players, technique, ability to be under control. It’s just a different product.”