I don’t care if the rules are “confusing” this is stupid as fuck
September 15, 2025
I don’t care if the rules are “confusing” this is stupid as fuck
43 comments
The rule isn’t even confusing. Just treat everything like a live ball and this never happens.
Terrible look by the rookie and will likely keep him off the field for the foreseeable future
How on earth do you stand back waiting for a kickoff, let the ball slip through your fingers, turn around and look at the ball sitting there, turn back around and see the other team running at full speed toward the ball, then just decide to stroll over to the sideline?
I don’t care about the landing zone or any of the dynamic kickoff rules, it should be pretty intuitive that when a ball is getting kicked to you, it’s becoming your possession, and if you muff it, you probably shouldn’t just walk away. For fuck’s sake, you’re fighting for a spot on this roster, you have one chance to see the field, and after standing there for 5 seconds and muffing the ball, you just walk away? This is one of the dumbest things I’ve ever seen in sports
This is a situation that should’ve occurred during camp or practice and that they drill on. There’s no excuse for something like this to swing a game.
This part of the rule has never changed. On a kickoff, you need to be sure that the ball goes out of the back of the end zone for a touchback, and Kaleb Johnson didn’t do that.
I mean. What is confusing about the new rule? A kickoff is a live ball. Always has been. At all levels of football. It was the most insane conversation by the announcers. The new rules, a. Aren’t confusing and b irrelevant; clown show in the booth and in the field.
Basic fundamentals for both players and coaches.
This is on the coaching staff imo.
Kaleb is in no way shape or form a kick return specialist. On a win now team why in the fuck are we experimenting with a rookie playing KR specialist when he didn’t even do that in college?
Get him off the field in this role. He should be sprinkled in on early downs if you want to get his feet wet. Blame it on the rookie if you want but this is 90% on the coaching staff imo.
I mean are we trying to win or not?
This kid looked like ass the entire preseason. I was shocked he was getting reps returning kicks in the regular season. That was one of the most embarrassing singular plays I can recall a Steeler making, and that includes all the bonehead shit Gunner used to do. Fuckin practice squad this guy immediately.
The thing I think it’s confusing is that I, sitting in my house high as balls knowing more about the rules…just by playing madden more than the professionals.
I mean this is why onside kicks exist right?
Barry foster did this back in the 90’s. It’s just a rookie mistake.
I’ve been saying since last week why is he even on kickoffs? He didnt do it in college, he doesn’t have the skill set for it, wtf is the reason. This coaching staffs fascination with backup RBs being the return guy goes back to Gary Russell
I thought something embarrassingly dumb was going to happen after someone posted that scuffed ass fake field goal a few days ago
Absolute coaching failure. Ridiculous. How do you not begin acclimating a rookie KR guy by spending 10 mins going over the rules.
Forget the kickoff rules. Old rules, new rules, touched him, didn’t touch him, whatever…
The NUMBER ONE rule you’re taught in peewee football is PLAY UNTIL THE WHISTLE.
the rule isn’t confusing but aside from the rule as a player you are always taught to protect the ball until a whistle blows.. he should have followed that ball and kicked it out of bounds and too the 10 yard penalty instead of letting the live ball sit in the end zone..
The lack of effort and care is alarming
Plain dumb. But, humans be humaning.
Its not even confusing. Its pretty simple. If the ball is in play, its live, fucking go get it
Not trying to justify the play here bc my guy you can’t give up on the ball like that…. But also guy was drafted as a power back and had what like 4 or 5 kickoff returns his whole college career? We have to have better options.
Our front office scouted this guy. Used a third round pick. Used him exclusively in special teams which he has little experience in.
And regardless, they clearly didn’t teach him quite enough to be a competent returner. I’m not blaming Kaleb for anything, why did we even draft this guy in the first place? Are our scouts that abysmal?
Dude was so embarrassed that he whiffed the ball he forgot how to play football
How many of us remember when Barry Foster did this back in 90 against the 49ers? If I remember correctly he left it on the 5 yard line (acting like it was a punt) and the 9ers ran it into the endzone. The rule said you cannot advance so they started on the 5 and 1 play later it was a TD anyway.
This is 100% on the coaches. Can’t throw a guy on kickoff return who only returned 2 kicks in 4 years of college. Unless it’s like a 4 TD lead with the game out of reach and you want to get him experience.
Still don’t think the dude possessed the ball before going out of bounds and I don’t think he thought he did either which is why he threw it back on to the field of play.
Still an insanely Stupid thing the Steelers seem to do once every 35 years
Just act like the ball is always live
Who even said what you’re quoting? Literally heard no one say that
Always assume the ball is “LIVE” ……………..simple……….
Set aside the aspect of knowing the rules. Catch the fucking ball.
A kickoff has always been a live ball. Dude is a moron.
Has Kaleb been designated for assignment yet
This was never confusing on a kickoff. I could see making an error on a punt return, but a kickoff has always been a live ball – that was the whole point of onside kicks under the old kickoff.
It’s understandable that a young player fucked up, but it’s a pretty bad fuck up and he’ll be fighting against the memory of it probably the rest of his career. Hopefully this fuels him to never make any big mistakes again, but boy does it suck.
It’s not exactly the same, but it’s worth noting that the Ravens lost this week because Derrick Henry fumbled. That was certainly much less of an unforced error, but it *was* a “you had one job” kind of mistake, and more clearly lost them the game. Point being even the best players fuck up. Hopefully he’ll learn from this.
Oh well, rookies do rookie things.
Should never happen. EVER.
Play through the whistle 🤷♂️
If you are paid millions of dollars to play a game professionally, it is reasonable to expect you to know every little rule and situation.
The rule isn’t confusing.
I’ve watched grown men, with decades in the league chase down dead balls on the off chance they missed a whistle or some flukey thing will happen- for my entire football-watching life.
The fact this rookie made a half-assed attempt at the live ball, then threw his hands up and quit on the play immediately is what’s unconscionable to me.
Benched for the season, maybe cut if I had my way.
That play is emblematic of the Steelers as an organization. Just a freaking mess!
The rule really isn’t that confusing…. this was in fact, stupid as fuck.
Coaching. If you haven’t drilled this into the head of your returner, it’s on the coach.
Also, maybe this team needs to stop forcing rookies to do what they didn’t do in college and let them do what they did. Why the actual hell isnt CA3 our returner?
At some point we’re all going to have to face the reality that at least 50% of this is on coaching. I’ll love Tomlin till the day I don’t, but even I have to accept that this just ain’t working.
43 comments
The rule isn’t even confusing. Just treat everything like a live ball and this never happens.
Terrible look by the rookie and will likely keep him off the field for the foreseeable future
How on earth do you stand back waiting for a kickoff, let the ball slip through your fingers, turn around and look at the ball sitting there, turn back around and see the other team running at full speed toward the ball, then just decide to stroll over to the sideline?
I don’t care about the landing zone or any of the dynamic kickoff rules, it should be pretty intuitive that when a ball is getting kicked to you, it’s becoming your possession, and if you muff it, you probably shouldn’t just walk away. For fuck’s sake, you’re fighting for a spot on this roster, you have one chance to see the field, and after standing there for 5 seconds and muffing the ball, you just walk away? This is one of the dumbest things I’ve ever seen in sports
This is a situation that should’ve occurred during camp or practice and that they drill on. There’s no excuse for something like this to swing a game.
This part of the rule has never changed. On a kickoff, you need to be sure that the ball goes out of the back of the end zone for a touchback, and Kaleb Johnson didn’t do that.
I mean. What is confusing about the new rule? A kickoff is a live ball. Always has been. At all levels of football. It was the most insane conversation by the announcers. The new rules, a. Aren’t confusing and b irrelevant; clown show in the booth and in the field.
Basic fundamentals for both players and coaches.
This is on the coaching staff imo.
Kaleb is in no way shape or form a kick return specialist. On a win now team why in the fuck are we experimenting with a rookie playing KR specialist when he didn’t even do that in college?
Get him off the field in this role. He should be sprinkled in on early downs if you want to get his feet wet. Blame it on the rookie if you want but this is 90% on the coaching staff imo.
I mean are we trying to win or not?
This kid looked like ass the entire preseason. I was shocked he was getting reps returning kicks in the regular season. That was one of the most embarrassing singular plays I can recall a Steeler making, and that includes all the bonehead shit Gunner used to do. Fuckin practice squad this guy immediately.
The thing I think it’s confusing is that I, sitting in my house high as balls knowing more about the rules…just by playing madden more than the professionals.
I mean this is why onside kicks exist right?
Barry foster did this back in the 90’s. It’s just a rookie mistake.
I’ve been saying since last week why is he even on kickoffs? He didnt do it in college, he doesn’t have the skill set for it, wtf is the reason. This coaching staffs fascination with backup RBs being the return guy goes back to Gary Russell
I thought something embarrassingly dumb was going to happen after someone posted that scuffed ass fake field goal a few days ago
Absolute coaching failure. Ridiculous. How do you not begin acclimating a rookie KR guy by spending 10 mins going over the rules.
Forget the kickoff rules. Old rules, new rules, touched him, didn’t touch him, whatever…
The NUMBER ONE rule you’re taught in peewee football is PLAY UNTIL THE WHISTLE.
the rule isn’t confusing but aside from the rule as a player you are always taught to protect the ball until a whistle blows.. he should have followed that ball and kicked it out of bounds and too the 10 yard penalty instead of letting the live ball sit in the end zone..
The lack of effort and care is alarming
Plain dumb. But, humans be humaning.
Its not even confusing. Its pretty simple. If the ball is in play, its live, fucking go get it
Not trying to justify the play here bc my guy you can’t give up on the ball like that…. But also guy was drafted as a power back and had what like 4 or 5 kickoff returns his whole college career? We have to have better options.
Our front office scouted this guy. Used a third round pick. Used him exclusively in special teams which he has little experience in.
And regardless, they clearly didn’t teach him quite enough to be a competent returner. I’m not blaming Kaleb for anything, why did we even draft this guy in the first place? Are our scouts that abysmal?
Dude was so embarrassed that he whiffed the ball he forgot how to play football
How many of us remember when Barry Foster did this back in 90 against the 49ers? If I remember correctly he left it on the 5 yard line (acting like it was a punt) and the 9ers ran it into the endzone. The rule said you cannot advance so they started on the 5 and 1 play later it was a TD anyway.
This is 100% on the coaches. Can’t throw a guy on kickoff return who only returned 2 kicks in 4 years of college. Unless it’s like a 4 TD lead with the game out of reach and you want to get him experience.
Still don’t think the dude possessed the ball before going out of bounds and I don’t think he thought he did either which is why he threw it back on to the field of play.
Still an insanely Stupid thing the Steelers seem to do once every 35 years
Just act like the ball is always live
Who even said what you’re quoting? Literally heard no one say that
Always assume the ball is “LIVE” ……………..simple……….
Set aside the aspect of knowing the rules. Catch the fucking ball.
A kickoff has always been a live ball. Dude is a moron.
Has Kaleb been designated for assignment yet
This was never confusing on a kickoff. I could see making an error on a punt return, but a kickoff has always been a live ball – that was the whole point of onside kicks under the old kickoff.
It’s understandable that a young player fucked up, but it’s a pretty bad fuck up and he’ll be fighting against the memory of it probably the rest of his career. Hopefully this fuels him to never make any big mistakes again, but boy does it suck.
It’s not exactly the same, but it’s worth noting that the Ravens lost this week because Derrick Henry fumbled. That was certainly much less of an unforced error, but it *was* a “you had one job” kind of mistake, and more clearly lost them the game. Point being even the best players fuck up. Hopefully he’ll learn from this.
Oh well, rookies do rookie things.
Should never happen. EVER.
Play through the whistle 🤷♂️
If you are paid millions of dollars to play a game professionally, it is reasonable to expect you to know every little rule and situation.
The rule isn’t confusing.
I’ve watched grown men, with decades in the league chase down dead balls on the off chance they missed a whistle or some flukey thing will happen- for my entire football-watching life.
The fact this rookie made a half-assed attempt at the live ball, then threw his hands up and quit on the play immediately is what’s unconscionable to me.
Benched for the season, maybe cut if I had my way.
That play is emblematic of the Steelers as an organization. Just a freaking mess!
The rule really isn’t that confusing…. this was in fact, stupid as fuck.
Mfs when a rookie makes a rookie mistake
https://preview.redd.it/nhpzpgqy7dpf1.jpeg?width=622&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b3f08b7612cb5201ed33e83f4393a72998e50aca
Coaching. If you haven’t drilled this into the head of your returner, it’s on the coach.
Also, maybe this team needs to stop forcing rookies to do what they didn’t do in college and let them do what they did. Why the actual hell isnt CA3 our returner?
At some point we’re all going to have to face the reality that at least 50% of this is on coaching. I’ll love Tomlin till the day I don’t, but even I have to accept that this just ain’t working.