offtopic » of them, or 21 percent. As the Chiefs lined up for th

With the Alliance of American Football coming and going this year Chad Henne Jersey , and the XFL coming (and maybe or maybe not going) next year, it’s been easy to forget that arena football is still a thing. But it is.The continuing existence of arena football was brought to our attention with the news that Dexter McCluster, a former Pro Bowl return man, has signed with the Massachusetts Pirates of the National Arena League.“I’m here to learn as fast as possible Kendall Fuller Jersey , get to know my teammates and my new brothers and get in where I fit in. I’m going to work hard, I’m going to push and motivate myself as well as others and we’ll see where the chips fall,” McCluster said in a statement released by the team.Although arena football has declined in popularity, there are still multiple arena leagues in business. They don’t pay full-time salaries Eric Murray Jersey , but McCluster, who made more than $12 million in his NFL career, just wants to play. The NFL has made several changes to the rules on kickoffs, intended to reduce the number of injuries that come from full-speed collisions. An unintended consequence has been reducing the number of successful onside kicks.So far this season NFL teams have attempted 50 onside kicks and recovered just four of them Terrance Smith Jersey , or 8 percent. Last year NFL teams attempted 57 onside kicks and recovered 12 of them, or 21 percent. As the Chiefs lined up for their unsuccessful onside kick on Sunday night against the Seahawks, Cris Collinsworth noted that the new rule barring players from getting a running start on kickoffs has made onside kicks much harder to recover.“The onside kick has been a little strange this year because you’re one yard from where the ball is kicked, so you don’t get that run-up that allows you to get there about the time when the ball hits that bounce-bounce way in the air and then comes down. So it hasn’t been as easy this year as it has been in some years past Xavier Williams Jersey ,” Collinsworth said.Many of the most exciting games in NFL history have been big comebacks spurred on by successful onside kicks. The new rules will make such comebacks harder, and rarer.