 There have actually been some changes within the last few years regarding kickoffs and football, largely because they were surprised to find that after a few decades of human experimentation, you can get pretty hurt if you let two groups of guys run as fast as they can and smash into each other. It's shocking, I know. I'll point out some of these changes along the way so that if you see highlights of an older game, you won't be so confused. Every American football game starts with a coin toss. Whoever wins the toss has a few choices. They can pick if they want to kick or receive the opening kickoff, choose which direction they want to go on the field, or they can defer their choice to the start of the second half. Years ago, you couldn't defer to the second half, so the team that won the toss almost always received to start the game. But after the option was added in 2008, teams who win the toss now almost always defer because they like to receive the ball to start the second half. Regardless of who receives or kicks, every game is going to start with a kickoff. But there are a few other points where they'll happen too, like at the start of the second half, after an extra point or two point conversion attempt, after a completed field goal, and in the NFL at the start of overtime. College overtime is a little different. So the kicker is going to put the ball on a tee at the 35 yard line, although if it's windy, one of his teammates might hold it for him. One of the recent changes is that the kicking team needs to have five of their players on both sides of the ball, and we won't get into the specifics, but they need to be spread out kind of evenly too. The players can stand no further than one yard behind the ball. This is actually one of the more noticeable changes because players used to start about ten yards behind the ball and get a running start as the kicker ran up to kick the ball. This used to lead to a lot of offside calls with players running past the line where the ball was before the ball was kicked, but these calls have been reduced since players now pretty much just start running as the ball is kicked. As for the receiving team, they cannot come within ten yards of the ball, so they need to be behind the 45 yard line, which means there's no blocking a kick off unless you have like ten foot arms or something. And at least eight of their players need to be within 25 yards of the kicking line. So typically the kicker will kick the ball down to the receiver who will catch it somewhere around the goal line. The kicking team will try to run down and tackle the receiver while his teammates will attempt to block for him. Worst case for the receiving team, they'll get tackled close to their own end zone. Best case they'll run it the whole way back for a touchdown. Short of scoring a touchdown anywhere the receiver is tackled with the ball is where they will start their next drive. So what if the ball is kicked so hard that it goes out of the back of the end zone? This is something called a touchback and there's actually a few ways it can happen. Really all the ball has to do is bounce in the end zone or be caught by a receiving team player in the end zone who kneels down. In college now there's also the option for a player to fair catch the ball inside the 25 yard line. A fair catch is just a signal that he's not going to try to return the ball, but it typically comes more into play on punts. But regardless of how it happens a touchback means there's no tackling. The ball will simply be placed at the 25 yard line for the offense to start. It used to be the 20 and there are still some other situations where a touchback will result on the ball being put on the 20, but for kickoff touchbacks the ball is now placed on the 25. All these rule changes have resulted over the past decade in the number of touchbacks skyrocketing. Some have even proposed entirely eliminating the kickoff and just letting the offense start on the 25, but the opportunity to run the ball the whole way back for a touchdown still creates an interesting possibility. So can't the kicker just kick the ball out of bounds to prevent the receiving team from returning the ball like they do on punts? No, he can't. I mean he can, but his team will get a penalty. If this happens and the ball goes out of bounds on a kickoff, the ball was placed 25 yards past the kickoff line, which would result in the receiving team getting the ball on their own 40 yard line, which they are usually happy to take. The exception being if something goes really wrong and the kicker somehow manages to kick the ball out of bounds before it gets to the 40, in which case the receiving team would get the ball where it goes out of bounds. That'll almost never happen though. So say the kicking team is losing a close game and time is running low, can they somehow get the ball themselves on their own kickoff? There is an easier way to do that than trying to force the receiving team to fumble. On a kickoff there is what is called a live ball, meaning whoever catches the ball gets to keep it. This is different than a punt where if the kicking team touches the ball before the receiving team, the receiving team still gets the ball. The one stipulation on kickoffs is that the ball must go 10 yards before anyone can touch it. So the kicker can't just kick the ball two yards forward and then fall on top of it. Intentionally kicking the ball short and trying to recover it is called an onside kick. Either the kicking team can grab the ball after it's gone 10 yards, or if the ball is touched the receiving team's players and bounced around, they can grab it wherever it is. Onside kicks come with a few risks though. The first one being that if the ball doesn't make it 10 yards, the receiving team would get it wherever it stops. The second more likely case is if the kicking team fails to recover the ball, now the receiving team not only has the ball, but they're starting with it in very good field position.