NFL 2025-26 Season

nycfan

nycfan

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šŸŽ ā€”> https://www.wsj.com/sports/football...6?st=iftxFr&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

ā€œFor most of football history, the kickoff that opened the Carolina Panthersā€™ first game of the NFL preseason would have been accurately characterized as completely atrocious.

Instead of booming a long kick deep into the end zone, Panthers kicker Matthew Wright poked a low wobbler that drifted one way and then the other, as if heā€™d just launched a boomerang downfield. To a casual observer, it might have looked as though someone plucked from the stands couldā€™ve done better.

But the funky-looking kick wasnā€™t a total shank. In fact, itā€™s the diabolical strategy that might just drive the entire NFL crazy this season. ā€¦ā€
 
ā€œā€¦ So this year, the NFL tweaked the rules once more. Now, a touchback gives the returning team the ball at the 35-yard-lineā€”or just a couple of completions from field-goal range. The upshot is teams suddenly have much more incentive to actually kick the ball into the ā€œlanding zoneā€ between the goal-line and 20-yard-line.

To avoid that, teams like Carolina are experimenting with a kickoff that exploits an esoteric part of the rulebook that gives an enormous advantage to the coverage team.

ā€¦ In anticipation of the so-called ā€œdynamic kickoffā€ last season, Syed charted hundreds of kickoffs from the XFL, the league that served as a model for the NFLā€™s new format.

One key difference between the rules in the two leagues stood out to Syed. In both, the coverage team was allowed to move once the kick had been caught. But in the XFL, those players have to wait three seconds if the ball hits the ground. The NFL has no such delay.

In effect, the XFL had built in an extreme disincentive from kicking it low and shortā€”and the NFL had eliminated it.

ā€œSo naturally,ā€ Syed says, ā€œI would think that is a really smart thing to at least try out.ā€ā€¦ā€
 
Anyone want to volunteer to keep the board informed on your local or favorite NFL team or maybe a specific division?
 
Is it on YouTube or YouTubeTV? It says YouTube, and YouTube is free.

If it is on YouTubeTV then it will probably be like the Amazon Prime games; you need a subscription to get the game unless you live in the home market of one of teams where it also broadcast on local TV.

ETA: NFL games on Friday night sucks. It sucked when college started playing on Fridays and it sucks that the NFL is playing on Fridays. Let high schools have the spotlight one goddamn night.
 
DiehardHeelFan said:
Do you have to have a YouTube subscription to watch the KC/LAC game?
Click to expand...
ā€œā€¦ The National Football League today announced that YouTube will exclusively* stream the Friday night Week 1 game of the 2025 NFL season in SĆ£o Paulo, Brazil on Sept. 5 to a worldwide audience on YouTube and YouTube TV. This marks the first exclusive NFL game to be streamed live and for free in its entirety on YouTubeā€¦.ā€

 
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