UFL to Adopt NFL's Successful Modified XFL Kickoff
The early returns on the NFL’s adaptation of the XFL kickoff were a success. As A Result, the UFL is reluctantly going back to the spring league innovation.
NFL Executive Vice President Jeff Miller says the new dynamic kickoff rule, adopted and modified from the XFL, led to a 57% return increase. The average starting field position improved by several yards, with more touchdowns, more returns past the 40-yard line, and a lower injury rate.
In most fields, it is common practice to follow the leader.
In 2024, the United Football League, a merged entity comprised of leadership from the XFL and USFL, followed that approach by scrapping the unorthodox XFL kickoff for a more traditional NFL-style kickoff.
The idea was for the United Football League to be more compatible with the NFL.
One aim of retaining a tweaked version of the traditional kickoff was to maintain adaptability for UFL players who get opportunities to latch on to the back end of NFL rosters. The prevailing thought was that most UFL players would be vying for special teams roles.
On the surface, It was not a flawed thought process by UFL Vice President of Football Operations Daryl Johnston and his executive team. After all, some of Spring Pro Football’s greatest successes in recent times have been special teams standouts. NFL All-Pros, Dallas Cowboys, kicker Brandon Aubrey, and returner Kavontae Turpin played within USFL-styled rules and transitioned smoothly into stars on the highest level.
The rationale for continuing to mirror the NFL‘s kickoff style seemed like a safe bet until Johnston’s former team’s special teams coordinator, John Fassel, spearheaded a movement with several other prominent NFL coordinators to scrap the NFL kickoff. The template for doing so came from the XFL kickoff, which Fassel studied extensively and put into practice with Dallas Cowboys players—the same specialist stars who came out of the USFL.
The early seeds of adopting the XFL kickoff picked up steam, and a revised version is now known as the “Dynamic Kickoff.”
The plot twist threw a monkey wrench into the UFL’s original plan.
In one of nearly 50 promotional appearances at Radio Row during Super Bowl week in New Orleans, the UFL’s Football head, Johnston, announced that the league would reluctantly reverse course and return to the kickoff from the XFL in 2020 and 2023.
"If the NFL is gonna embrace this kickoff, then it doesn't make sense for us to have our guys doing something they won't be doing at the NFL level"- Moose Johnston to 1067theFan
While the NFL’s new kickoff style has been far from a critical or smashing success, the goal of reducing injuries and increasing returns has accomplished what the league desired. It’s brought new life to a dying play that was nearly non-existent because of multiple tweaks to ensure safety.
The NFL's concussion rate went down 43%. Returns increased 57%, and touchdowns went up 75%. As a result, it appears that the new Dynamic kickoff is here to stay. There could be more tweaks, but the NFL will unlikely return to the traditional kickoff.
The irony is that Spring Pro Football and the XFL’s team, headed by Sam Schwartzstein, led the way for a movement that saw leagues like the European League of Football and the NFL follow suit. Now, the UFL has to trail a path that was already blazed.
