When the XFL and USFL merged for the 2024 spring-football season, the new United Football League turned down adopting the XFL’s radical kickoff makeover for the traditional kickoff rules used by the rest of the football world.

But on Tuesday, the XFL’s kickoff returned to life as the NFL’s owners approved a rule change for the 2024 season.

The so-called hybrid kickoff rules are designed to return the play to the NFL on a consistent basis while eliminating the high-speed impacts at the end of 50-yard sprints by members of the coverage team.

The NFL has been fiddling with its kickoff rules for 15 years in response to the comparatively high concussion rate on the play. While that has reduced the concussions, it also has reduced the kickoff returns. In 2023, 21.7 percent of kickoffs were returned, the lowest rate in NFL history.

The new NFL kickoff isn’t exactly like the XFL’s, but it’s pretty close.

On NFL kickoffs in 2024, 10 players on the kicking team will line up on the receiving team’s 40-yard line. At least nine members of the receiving team will line up between its 35- and 30-yard lines.

The kicker will be at his 35-yard line, and his kick must come down between the opponent’s 20-yard line and the goal line.

A kick that goes out of bounds or lands short of the 20 will be awarded to the receiving team at the 40-yard line. A kick that goes into the end zone for a touchback will be spotted at the receiving team’s 30-yard line.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.