Kickoffs Help Giants, but Future of Kickoffs Is Uncertain The Giants needed kickoff returns by David Wilson to turn the momentum against the Saints on Sunday. But does the N.F.L. need kickoff returns? League officials said last week that they would consider a proposal by Bucs Coach Greg Schiano: replacing kickoffs with punts from the 30-yard line, with teams having the option of a fourth-and-15 play from their 30 (to replace the onside kick as a mechanism for having the chance to maintain possession). The reason, as with many changes in the N.F.L. these days, is player safety. Some of the game's most severe injuries occur on kickoffs, which also happen to be among the game's most exciting plays. Mike Garafolo, USA Today: I understand completely they're trying to protect the players. But where do you draw the line and how do you make it? (Domenik) Hixon said in a victorious Giants postgame locker room, amid a group of players that realized they needed that victory to stay atop the NFC East. I just don't know. I'd have to sit down and really deliberate, really think about it. It's so tough. Mike Pereira, the former league supervisor of officials, and a reliable advocate for player safety, wrote on his FoxSports.com blog: That's a ridiculous proposal. There are many ways to make the NFL safer. Eliminating one of the most exciting parts of the game should not be one of them. Pereira argued that moving kickoffs to the 35-yard line from the 30 had already made the necessary difference in reducing the number of returns and corresponding injuries. But Andy Staples of Sports Illustrated wrote: "It sounds so strange. It sounds so sacrilegious. It sounds so ... so ... awesome. Schiano isn't sure exactly when the idea dawned on him, but it came sometime last season. Maybe it came during one of Schiano's late-night trips home from Hackensack University Medical Center, or maybe it came when he sat in the hospital room of Rutgers defensive tackle Eric LeGrand. LeGrand broke his C3 and C4 vertebrae making a tackle on a kickoff on Oct. 16 against Army and is paralyzed below the neck. Extra point What do you think of the Schiano proposal to replace the kickoff?