Kansas City Chiefs special teams coach Dave Toub doesn’t care a whole lot about what President Donald Trump thinks of the new kickoff rules that were implemented by the NFL in an attempt to make the play safer and more exciting.
Toub, who has spent more than two decades coaching special teams in Chicago and Kansas City, didn’t hold back Thursday when he was asked what he thought of the president’s pointed criticism of the kickoff rules.
«He doesn’t even know what he’s looking at. He has no idea what’s going on with the kickoff rule,» said the normally reserved Toub, his voice rising. «So take that for what it’s worth. And I hope he hears it.»
Two days after he became the first sitting president to attend a regular-season NFL game since Jimmy Carter in 1978, Trump appeared on «The Pat McAfee Show» on Nov. 11 and torched the league’s dynamic kickoff rule, which owners voted to make permanent this year.
«I think it’s so terrible. I think it’s so demeaning, and I think it hurts the game. It hurts the pageantry,» Trump said. «I’ve told that to [NFL commissioner] Roger Goodell, and I don’t think it’s any safer. I mean, you still have guys crashing into each other.»
Under the rule, the ball is kicked from the 35-yard line, but every player on the kicking team must wait at the 40 until the ball hits the ground or is touched by a returner inside the 20-yard line. There are also rules for if the ball does not reach the landing zone, hits the landing zone without being caught or lands in the end zone.
The NFL has maintained that the dynamic kickoff system is safer while producing more kickoff returns.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
