Add Brad Smith of the Jets to the growing list of kickoff returners who don’t agree with the NFL’s decision to move the kickoff by five yards, supposedly to make the play safer.
“That’s our number one goal, is player safety,” Smith told Sirius XM’s Mad Dog Radio. “But at the same time we don’t want the game to be affected. It’s a physical game and that’s why we love playing it, quite frankly. We love to play because we love the physical contact.”
Smith, who described himself as “disappointed” when he learned of the kickoff change, joins fellow return men Devin Hester and Josh Cribbs, as well as Ravens coach John Harbaugh, in publicly opposing the change.
The six teams voting against moving the kickoff were Chicago, Cincinnati, Jacksonville, Oakland, Cleveland and Philadelphia. Smith will be disappointed to learn that the Jets voted for the move.
“It just really changes the whole dynamic of a game, one of the most important plays in football,” Smith said. “So there’s going to be a lot of coaches that spend a lot of time trying to figure it out.”
