I have no idea the number of articles over the past nine years that I’ve begun with some variation of talking about how special teams is an area of the game that most people don’t care about until they have to—a missed field goal, at shanked punt, a fumble, a long return allowed. I don’t know how many times I’ve written this. I just know it’s a lot.
The good news is that most teams tend to value special teams more than most fans do, which is why the majority of them actually have a special teams coordinator, who is as responsible for his group as the offensive and defensive coordinators are for theirs.