Ref, Chiefs discuss 12th player on kickoffs rule

ST. JOSEPH, Mo.– Twelve men on the field will be legal this coming NFL season. Well, in one specific instance.

NFL referee John Hussey met with reporters Saturday after Kansas City Chiefs practice to review the new rules for the 2024 season, and spent a chunk of time breaking down those governing kickoffs. He said that in the past few weeks, officials learned that in windy weather games, where teams might use kicking sticks to steady the ball, clubs will now be able to utilize a 12th player as a holder. The player won’t be able to do anything else on the play, and will have to vacate the field immediately after holding the kick.

“It’s going to be weird counting to 12,” Hussey said.

He joked, “Joe Fan would love that. A big moneymaker to raffle that off.”

The new kickoff format was approved for just the 2024 season and it’s very much still in the developmental phase. The idea is to eliminate the running start that has caused injuries by placing the kicking and returning teams 5 yards apart, and increase returns with the addition of a landing zone from the 20-yard line to the goal line, where kicks must be returned. Any kick that fails to reach the landing zone will be placed on the receiving team’s 40-yard line.

Officials, coaches and players are experimenting, and it’s impossible to predict what the play will look like until it actually happens live Thursday at the Hall of Fame game, where Hussey and his crew will officiate the first redesigned kickoff.

Hussey called the play a “work in progress” and said he spent time this weekend discussing the nuances with Chiefs special teams coordinator Dave Toub, who was on the league’s committee of special teams coordinators that designed the revamped kickoff. One topic Hussey said they discussed in detail is how the rules that apply to the sideline are the same as those that will apply to the landing zone.

If a player catches the ball with one foot in bounds and one out of bounds, the ball is ruled out of bounds and the receiving team gets possession at its own 40-yard line. Similarly, if a player catches the kick with one foot inside the 20-yard line and the other outside it, the ball will be ruled outside the landing zone and the receiving team will take it at the 40.

“We’re all learning, truthfully,” Hussey said. “There’s conversation. Are they going to kick a line drive? Are they going to pooch the ball into the 20? Are they going to keep two receivers back? Move a 10th person up? There’s a lot we don’t know.”

On Tuesday at Chiefs practice, safety Deon Bush on the receiving team reached up and tipped the ball on kickoff, preventing it from reaching the landing zone. A reporter asked Hussey: Is that legal?

“He has to keep his feet on the ground, but as soon as he does [tip it], it’s dead,” Hussey said. “And he gets the ball at the 40.”

Officials are changing where they stand on the field, and how they watch the kickoff. Hussey used to stand under the uprights, but now he and the umpire will be on hashmarks in the end zone, like on a regular scrimmage play, because players will engage in blocking quickly as they begin only 5 yards apart. And officials will watch players’ feet to make sure they aren’t leaving the ground early, something the crew would not have been looking for in the past. If players do move early, the penalty will be 5 yards for illegal formation, which can be tacked on to the resulting play or the kick.

But Hussey said he’ll be careful to not do too much legislating as everyone works together to figure the new rules out.

“Our approach to this play is we’re going to do everything we can to protect and to preserve this play so it works,” Hussey said. “We’re not going to try to over-officiate it, but we have to let it play out.”

That should come as a relief to special teams coordinators because the play brings the potential for plenty of false starts. Players on either side can’t move until the ball touches the ground or is caught, which is a big adjustment to make, and likely hard to judge for the officials.

Hussey and his crew have yet to see the play unfold in real life. That’s on the Chiefs practice schedule for Sunday.