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Former Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Bill Cowher is one of the most respected analysts in the game these days and fans who have missed him only have to wait a few more days for the NFL season to kick off and inject some Cowher back into their lives.
The Super Bowl champion recently expressed his displeasure with one aspect of the NFL’s new kickoff rule and hopes the NFL makes some further changes.
Cowher doesn’t mind the new kickoff but isn’t a fan of one part of it, recently saying “One thing I don’t like about it is that we’re trying to take away the onside kick. As a guy who used an onside kick in the Super Bowl, it made me very sad when I saw that happen.”
Cowher added that he still thinks the onside kick is an exciting play that should still have a place in the sport without having to telegraph it beforehand, as the new format makes it impossible to do a surprise onside kick and other new rules have made it so teams can only use onside kicks if they are losing and cannot do it unless it’s the fourth quarter.
Only 5.2 percent of onside kicks were recovered in 2023 and there were only two surprise kicks since the NFL banned run-ups.
Cowher spoke about the topic further and said, “I’ve done it a lot as a special teams coach. It’s a fun play and a strategical play. That’s why I always fought for the onside kick as part of the competition committee when I was on it.”
Long live the onside kick.
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