NFL meeting Monday to consider tweaking new kickoff rules in light of call during Chiefs game

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - A kickoff that went against the Chiefs’ way during Saturday’s loss to Jacksonville has NFL officials weighing a return to an old rule concerning touchbacks.

Sources told KCTV5′s Neal Jones on Monday that the NFL was set to hold a meeting on Monday about the new kickoff rule, specifically whether the ball should be live when it lands in the end zone.

On a Jaguars kickoff, the ball landed in the end zone but then bounced back into the field of play, coming to a stop at the one-yard line. Chiefs returner Mecole Hardman stepped into the end zone and touched the ball with the assumption that it would give the Chiefs a touchback.

Officials initially ruled the play a touchback, but then reversed course and called the play a safety.

Under prior rules, a kickoff that landed in the end zone on the fly was called a dead ball - an automatic touchback.

Under the new kickoff rules, that isn’t the case.

“Normally when a ball goes in the end zone and you touch it there, then it’s a dead ball, but we’ll get it cleared up and see what they come up with,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said after the game on Saturday.

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