Glitch In New NFL Kickoff Rules Will Occasionally Mean Kicking Team Has 12 Players On Field

Getty Image / Ryan Kang

The NFL is introducing new kickoff rules for the 2024 season that I’m sure you’ve heard of by now that will greatly increase the number of kickoff returns fans see. It should make things much more exciting, as touchbacks were incredibly boring.

But, in the first NFL game with the new rules, the annual Hall of Fame Game, we saw a way that the new rules will actually get 12 players on the field at once in something I’m sure pretty much none of us ever thought about.

First off, ESPN made a great diagram explaining the new kickoff.

Think back to a particularly windy game. Oftentimes, the ball won’t stay on the kicking tee, so a member of the kicking tee has to hold the ball. Normal stuff.

But, now, the ten players on the kicking team that aren’t the kicker are lining up well ahead of where the ball is kicked from. Someone still has to hold the ball on these windy kickoffs.

The NFL is allowing a twelfth player to take the field and hold the ball in this situation. We actually saw this in Thursday’s game between the Bears and Texans. Take a look.

That’s Iowa punting legend Tory Taylor doing the holding.  He has to get off the field as soon as possible after the ball is kicked, but for a short amount of time, there will be twelve players on the field on the kicking team.

There will be a lot of new and interesting things to come along with the kickoff rules, and this is one of them.