Giants particular groups coordinator Thomas McGaughey didn’t need to blast the NFL’s new kickoff rule on Thursday to make it clear the place he stands.
He mentioned all of it along with his shoulder shrugging, his grim acceptance of a change that closely impacts his livelihood, and his response as to whether particular groups coaches really feel like an endangered species nowadays.
“That’s a really good question,” McGaughey mentioned with a tragic smile. “That’s a really good question.”
McGaughey is aware of all he can management is his response to a rule that permits a good catch wherever behind the 25-yard line to convey the ball out to the 25 for 1st and 10.
“We might not agree with it, but that’s just what it is, and we’ll govern ourselves accordingly,” he mentioned, talking for all coaches on his marginalized aspect of the ball.
But the Giants’ coordinator did echo one of many frequent complaints of this rule’s critics: NFL house owners are ignoring the doable unintended penalties that coaches and gamers pleaded with them to acknowledge earlier than its passage.
“This is uncharted territory,” McGaughey mentioned. “It’s something that we haven’t seen before in our league, and [there is] always going to be something that’s going to pop up within a new rule change that they didn’t foresee. So it’s one of those deals where you’ve got to play the games to see what happens.”
No one actually is aware of. The overriding frustration, nevertheless, is whereas house owners declare this rule was handed to make the sport safer, groups’ changes to realize an edge may create a extra violent play with kicks which can be squibbed, knuckled or shortened.
“There are going to be some teams that will be aggressive with it, I’m sure,” McGaughey mentioned. “We’re always looking for angles as coaches, right? We’re always trying to find competitive advantages. We’ll always try [to] find those. So, we’re looking at certain things that we could possibly do, and we’ll see what happens.”
Above all, the house owners’ hypocrisy in claiming participant well being and security as their precedence is what grinds probably the most outspoken gamers and coaches.
Coaches like McGaughey aren’t going to go there, after all. His boss, Giants co-owner John Mara, voted in favor of the change and helped push it by means of.
But Patriots captain Matthew Slater, a three-time Super Bowl winner who constructed a adorned profession on particular groups, was keen to talk out strongly at a current New England OTA observe.
“It’s my understanding that the powers that be think this is gonna improve player safety and health,” Slater mentioned. “And I’m just not convinced that our league is always gonna do what’s in the best interest of our players. I understand that we want to reduce head injuries and things of that nature, but we don’t always act as if player health and safety is paramount.”
“We can talk about the Thursday night games. That’s an easy one. That’s low-hanging fruit,” Slater added. “But we can also talk about the issues that our players experience once they leave the game: Why is it that we have to fight for health care beyond five years out of the game? Why is it that when players go to file for benefits, in terms of disability, [they have] to jump through hoops nonstop? Why is it that we’re continuing to fight the battle that we’re fighting of grass versus turf?”
Slater, 37, a minimum of, is nearer to the tip of his NFL profession as this rule enters soccer — on a one-year trial foundation, they are saying — to threaten a few of what he does finest.
But what about gamers just like the Giants’ Cam Brown, 25, and Carter Coughlin, 25? They’re fourth-year execs who’ve their roster spots due to their particular groups worth.
McGaughey admitted “it’s tough” for gamers like that throughout the league now.
“It’s not an easy situation when you know, for the most part, you’re going to get anywhere from 25 to 28 plays [a game on special teams],” McGaughey mentioned. “Normally [as an individual] you get really 14 to 15 of those plays, maybe 18, and then half of those might go away. Naturally, you might think, ‘OK, what is my value?’”
McGaughey additionally famous it’s going to now not be as efficient to make use of Giants kicker Graham Gano’s means to land his kickoffs simply exterior the aim line, between the 3-yard line and 1-yard line, since a good catch there’ll merely give the opponent the ball on the 25.
Each head coach in the end will determine if his crew simply abandons the kickoff solely and boots the ball far, content material to surrender the sphere place.
“It just depends on the coach and the organizational philosophies and how they view things,” McGaughey mentioned. “Some organizations might choose to do that, some organizations may not. It just depends from week to week and whatever the head coach or whatever the organization’s philosophy is on how they’re going to approach that play.”
The NFL’s house owners declare this rule is in response to a spike in concussions from 12 to 19 in kickoffs final yr. Slater doesn’t wish to hear it. He thinks that is optics-driven.
“I just don’t believe that this is truly in the name of player health and safety,” he mentioned. “What I do believe is we want to portray ourselves as a certain way to the public, to you guys, that says we care about the players. But I can give you a long list of examples — and I’ve been around this game for almost 40 years — I can give you a long list of examples where the league and the powers that be do not act in the best interest of the players.”
“If we’re really concerned with player safety and health, let’s talk about some of the real issues that are gonna impact player safety and health,” he added. “Let’s not talk about a play [which] over 99% of the time, when the ball’s kicked off, is injury free. Those are the facts. Those are the stats. You can go look them up yourself.”
McGaughey mentioned he’ll preserve teaching methods and emphases the identical method and preserve an eye fixed out for doable changes that might assist. It’s all he can do.
“No one wants to lose a part of what you’re used to doing as … your job to kind of go away,” he mentioned. “You want to be able to coach the way you’ve been coaching and have the same kind of impact in the game that you want to have. But again, you just make the adjustments and just keep moving.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com