As the 2025 NFL season comes to a close, the league is deliberating on another change.

On January 30th, league executives stated that they will discuss the use of video review to assess unruly behavior. They proposed this idea after witnessing decreased head injuries thanks to changed rules to make kickoffs safer.

"For 20 of the 22 players on the kickoff this year, we saw a decreased injury rate, decreased concussion rates, decreased lower extremity rates," Jeff Miller, the NFL executive vice president in charge of player safety, said.

Miller referred to the dynamic kickoff rule that aimed to slow player speeds and encourage returns. After its implementation in the 2024 season, the concussion rate came down to 43% compared to what it was between 2021 and 2023. However, there was a different problem.

While the dynamic kickoff rule succeeded in bringing more returns (1,157), it increased the cases of concussions when it came to kickoff returns specifically. A year ago, there were eight cases of concussion on kickoffs, which increased to 35 this season.

"But we did see concussions to the tackler and to the ball-carrier. And so we started the conversation with the competition committee already to take a look at those impacts, to take a look at the formation and structure and the speeds of the play and see if there are ways to address those."

Essentially, the NFL will discuss the possibility of reviewing calls referees missed on the field, including acts of unnecessary contact or roughness, grabbing the facemask, roughing the passer, and hip drop tackles, as their next agenda for preventing injuries.

“I would just say from a player health and safety perspective, we would like to introduce all and any opportunity and options for either putting a flag on the field or any way to try to address this in-game,” Dawn Aponte, NFL head of football operations, said in a press conference.

What This Means For the Sport

The execs will announce new or reworked rules decisions based on these observations next season. This potential change addresses long-standing fan criticism over missed calls.

For instance, the Cincinnati Bengals fans were in an uproar after their quarterback, Joe Burrow, was shoved to the ground by the Baltimore Ravens defensive lineman Dre’Mont Jones.

According to the Bengals supporters, Jones got away with the unnecessary contact and mocked the team for raising a complaint. But with the league's latest announcement, such incidents might become less common. Do you think the change will come into effect?

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Written by

Akanksha Biradar

Edited by

Siddharth Shirwadkar