With teams waiting for the NFL to approve a new kick-off alignment, Bengals special teams maven Clayton Fejedelem is prepared to fit his game into whatever the league decrees to make the game safer. He loves the play. He loves the game. And in the end, he doesn't think there'll be that much of a difference.
"My personal opinion is I don't care," Fejedelem said Monday. "There's that physical aspect to football. There's just a (brutality) to it and that's what people enjoy. You know what you're getting yourself into. I'm all for fewer head injuries, but at the end of day if you're taking on an individual directly, you're not diving into him and you're playing with your eyes up, the head injuries really aren't there.
"That's what fans enjoy. That's what the game of football is. Not everyone is going to run full speed into big body wedge guys that are 6-5, 300 pounds. That takes a little want-to, a little desire to do that. That's what people in the crowd like, they like to see the big collisions. I think that's just part of it. That's why you love the game, you like taking the bruises, you like delivering the bruises."
Fejedelem said that Bengals special teams coordinator Darrin Simmons has talked about the potential changes (just a one-yard running start for the kick-off cover team, no wedge blocking and eight men on the front line for the return team), but they haven't discussed anything in-depth because the proposal is still evolving. Fejedelem has seen enough that he thinks there'll be a few minor scheme adjustments but not a major impact.
The 6-0, 205-pound Fejedelem, a third-year safety who had 15 tackles last season on the way to an alternate Pro Bowl berth, thinks the biggest difference is going to be on the return side. As a rover on the cover team, he won't have to take on wedges if the owners approve the plan later this month.
"It's hard to tell," Fejedelem said when asked if that helps him. "You can speculate you might be able to beat other players in space or get a little jump on them. But I couldn't tell you. A lot of unknowns."
Fejedelem plays left center up front on the return team so there's no change for him there. And he certainly hopes the kickoff isn't going anywhere.
"It's probably the most physical one play in the game. That's what sets you up as a great show," Fejedelem said. "People don't realize how those few yards help offensive and defensive drive starts based on field position. You see the best teams that go to the playoffs every year in the top in drive starts. It's a huge aspect of the game. You take that out, you're just levelling the playing field and taking a lot out of the game."
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