Getting a kick out of new rules
Recalling the Koufax perfecto. Guess who is on Belichick's staff?
Good morning, all! It’s hump day!
In its continuing effort to put the kick back into the kick off, the NFL tweaked the rules yet again for this season to encourage more returns. Admittedly it is a small sample size, but the results from Week 1 are encouraging.
Per Ben Volin of The Boston Globe, teams did not boom the kick off into the end zone at an alarming rate in the season’s first week, willing to take their chances rather than spotting the touchback at the 35 yard line. The numbers from Week 1, before the Monday night game, showed 109 kick off returns, compared to 57 last season in Week 1 and 32 in 2023. The league has also incorporated stricter rules to make it safer for the kick return team.
Here’s hoping the changes work. A kick off return for yardage is one of the most exciting plays in sports.
Here are some other thoughts, while contemplating how our games have changed over the years:
To that end, someone asked on Facebook what do you remember about baseball that today’s younger fans would have no idea existed? I could think of many things but here are two: starting pitchers throwing complete games on a regular basis and averaging over 300 innings pitched per season.
Yes that is Yankees manager Aaron Boone’s son on North Carolina football coach Bill Belichick’s staff. Brandon Boone is serving as a student offensive assistant coach. He graduated from UNC and had done data analysis for the Yankees.
Sixty years ago baseball fans awoke to read and hear that Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Sandy Koufax made history the night before, pitching a perfect game against the Chicago Cubs. The game took just 1:43 to play, as the Dodgers won, 1-0, and collected only one hit. In fact, the only run scored on an error. The perfect game was immortalized by a great call from the iconic Vin Scully:
I might not be able to pass a biology test, but ask me to recite Scully’s poetic call of the last pitch thrown by Koufax to nail down the perfecto, and I could ace it. Part of Scully’s magnificent description was giving the time, during his play-by-play.
It was not common to record games back then, but Scully, sensing history was in the making after the eighth inning, asked the engineer back at the radio station to roll the tape. He said he included the time so Koufax, listening to it years later, could better put the night into context. At the time, the no-hitter was historic because Koufax became the only pitcher to hurl four no-hitters. That would later be topped by Nolan Ryan, who threw seven no-nos.
Add the Denver Broncos to the list of NFL teams wanting to build a new stadium. The team announced Tuesday it has plans to build a new, privately funded stadium in the Burnham Yard section of Denver as part of a mix-use development. The goal is to have the facility ready for the 2031 season. The Broncos current stadium, constructed on the site of old Mile High Stadium - where I might add, I broadcast some baseball games - opened in 2000. Twenty five years for a stadium is not that old, except in this day-and-age. Good thing these teams don’t call the Roman Colosseum home or we would have lost an architectural wonder.
No suspension for Eagles DT Jalen Carter for the spit heard round the world. He was fined $57,222, the cost of his weekly paycheck.
That is going to do it for today newsletter. As always, thank you for your support and have a terrific Wednesday!
DAN