Devin Hester Dislikes New Touchback Rule

In what is one step closer to eradicating the kickoff return from football forever, the NFL will be experimenting with a new rule that places teams at their own 25-yard line following a touchback in 2016. That doesn’t sit well with Atlanta Falcons kick return specialist Devon Hester, who likened the change to a restriction of his very trade.

“It’s like taking a job away from people,” Hester told ESPN. “I got a concussion making a block at receiver, but I never got hurt taking hits on kickoffs.” Hester might be right about his luck in avoiding injury, but very often it’s the blockers and gunners who go down on kick returns, not the returner. While the ball carrier has a fairly open view of the field and is expecting to get tackled, the other 21 players on the field are operating with a limited cone of vision and are often blindsided by big blocks or even friendly fire.

Boasting five career kickoff return touchdowns – including one on the opening play of Super Bowl XLI – and a return average of exactly 25 yards, Hester doesn’t seem sold on the sweetener that is an extra five yards simply for taking a knee in the endzone. “If we’re clicking, we can bring it back from pretty much anywhere,” he claimed, adding that he’s returned kicks from his own endzone before with little thought to cost-benefit analysis in the heat of the moment.

But it’s not all about preventing injury, either. Let’s not pretend the league’s decision to push up the offense’s starting spot wasn’t influenced at least a little by the possibility of higher-scoring games. As consolation for effectively killing the most exciting aspect of football, the NFL has made it just a sliver easier for modern spread offenses to come away from any given drive with points – a factor the league has prioritized for a number of years now.

For men like Hester, though, the change could make his position that much more expendable. Entering his ninth season as a wide receiver, Hester has caught only 249 passes in his career, but holds impressive records in just about every return category. Should his pride cost the Falcons this year, the 33-year-old may need to either expand his skillset or call it a career.