XFL may not have lasted long, but some ideas could filter down to college level

While the XFL experiment was halted last week without much warning, ESPN’s Tom Hart told Phil Elson and Matt Jenkins on Halftime some of their innovative experiments might be around awhile.

“I know for a fact (the NFL and colleges) are looking at them,” he said Monday afternoon. “There’s no reason now to watch kickoffs.”

In case you didn’t see it, the XFL lines the two teams up five yards apart on the 30 and 35. Nobody can leave until the ball is caught or hits the ground. It actually turned out to be more interesting than you’d think.

“Such a high percentage of head injuries occur on kickoffs,” Hart said. “Whare your choices?

“You negate it to the point you very seldom get a return and then you’re just talking about wasted time. In this day and age where everybody wants the games to move along that doesn’t make much sense.

“Or you make it safer by putting everybody closer together and you get action. The shame of the season only get halfway was we didn’t get as many data points as we wanted.”