The NFL's 32 owners approved one of the most dramatic rule changes in league history this week when they voted through the new kickoff rule.
Although the proposal ended up getting approved, it wasn't done unanimously. The final voting tally for the rule was 29-3.
So who were the three teams that voted against it? Glad you asked. Let's take a look.
Packers
Although the Packers are the NFL's only publicly owned team, the public doesn't get to vote at the owners' meeting. Instead, that honor goes to team president Mark Murphy, who voted against the kickoff rule.
Murphy wanted to see the NFL give the new rule a test run in the preseason before implementing it for the regular season, which is why he voted against it.
"Our issue was that it's such a major change, my thought -- our thought -- was it makes sense to have, maybe, as a trial or experiment in the preseason to see. There's going to be some unintended consequences, I think, and I just felt that it made sense to have a trial," Murphy said, via PackersNews.com.
Even though the Packers voted against the rule, that doesn't mean they don't like it. As a matter of fact, Murphy likes that kickoff returns will be making a comeback this year, especially since the Packers have one of the best returners in the game in Keisean Nixon.
"That said, it passed, so we'll be very supportive of it," Murphy said. "And we have one of the better kick returners in the league, so we'll put that to our advantage."
Nixon averaged 26.1 yards per return last season, which ranked second in the NFL for any player who had 10 or more returns in 2023.
49ers
The 49ers appeared to have some of the same concerns the Packers had. Like Murphy, 49ers owner Jed York was also concerned about the possibility of unintended consequences that could come with such a drastic rule change.
"I think the concern is that it's such a drastic change to a play," York said, via SI.com. "From a health and safety standpoint, we've tried to address the play. It was the most, highest-rated injury play that existed, so they're going from that to trying to reintroduce the play into the game and make it more of a real play as opposed to a ceremonial play. I'm 100% for that. I just want to make sure with something that's brand new that we have the opportunity to address it during the middle of the season."
If the rule doesn't work as planned, York's issue is that the NFL won't be able to fix anything right away.
"If there's injury data or a competitive issue that doesn't work, that it's not, 'This is the asterisk season of the kickoff rule that didn't work,'" York said. "I'm 100% for trying to make that play active in our game again. They've put in a ton of time, a ton of effort to try to make something work. I'm just sure that there's going to be tweaks to it and I'd rather tweak it if we have to in the middle of the season as opposed to, 'Here's the asterisk season and we're gonna tweak it at the end of the year.' That's it."
Basically, if the rule is a total failure and doesn't work the way the NFL is hoping it will work, York wants the league to be able to tweak the rule if necessary.
Raiders
Mark Davis handled the vote for the Raiders, but he hasn't yet explained why he voted against the kickoff rule, so it's unclear why he was against it. That being said, Davis is a chatty person, so the next time he's available for comment, it's almost a guarantee he'll be asked about it, and he likely won't duck away from answering the question.
A fourth team almost voted against the kickoff rule. The Steelers were initially on the fence, but they ended up voting for it after it became clear the rule was going to pass.
"We wound up voting for it after it was a foregone conclusion that it was going to pass," Steelers owner Art Rooney II said this week, via TribLive.com.
Like Murphy and York, Rooney also seems concerned with the unknown of the new rules.
"It's a dramatic change, no way around that," Rooney said. "We had some reservations because of that. It's going to be interesting."
The NFL got its new kickoff idea from the XFL, and the play will be very similar to what you see below.
The NFL's main goal with the rule change is to create more kickoff returns, but the league also wanted to cut down on the injuries that come with the high-speed collisions that occurred under the old kickoff rules. As long as those two goals are accomplished, the league will likely stick with the new kickoff rule following the upcoming one-year trial.
We broke down the ins and outs of the new kickoff rule, and you can check that out here.