Posted on 01/21/2014 10:03:45 AM PST by nikos1121
Earlier this season, New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick told reporters that extra points in football were boring because they have become so automatic, and now it appears commissioner Roger Goodell might agree.
In fact, on Monday, Goodell appeared on NFL Network’s “Total Access,” and took things a step further than Belichick, indicating that the league’s competition committee could consider eliminating the PAT altogether.
“One of the things the committee does besides looking first at the safety issues … (is) looking to see, ‘Are there any plays in the game that, really, are not consequential?’” Goodell told host Rich Eisen. “And one of the issues that has happened is that the extra point is almost automatic.”
Goodell is right enough there. The NFL only saw five missed extra points this regular season — one each from Green Bay, Dallas, Pittsburgh, Tennessee and Philadelphia — in 1,267 tries. And the active kicker with the worst PAT conversion rate is Graham Gano, who has made 97.6 percent of his regular-season kicks since coming into the league four seasons ago.
But if football actually did do away with the extra point, then what would happen after a touchdown?
“You want to add excitement with every play,” Goodell said. “So there have been some proposals. Some are still going through the process of creativity, but there’s one proposal in particular that I’ve heard about (where) it’s automatic that you get seven points when you score a touchdown, but you could potentially go for an eighth point, either by running or passing the ball. But if you fail, you’d go back to six.”
It’s certainly an interesting idea that would force coaches to rethink the way they approach certain game situations, but before you start thinking about how such a rule might impact the 17th round of your fantasy draft next year, take a breath — because Goodell, in his interview, also made it clear that the proposal he discussed is just that.
“We often get a lot of ideas that are thrown out,” Goodell said. “The committee will look at all of them and decide what is worthy of further consideration.
“There’s some issues, and it goes back to … unintended consequences,” he continued. “You want to be careful there; is that going to discourage people from going for two? We want to make sure we look at some of that, and that’s what the committee does. They’ll make, obviously, some focus on this in the committee and see where they come out.”
Let the ref just drop the football to start the game/half, like hockey faceoff. FUMBLE!
No kicking, no coin flip.
I didn’t say he did. But he is taking credit for a property whose current success he is not responsible for. He does rule in an autocratic way.
Low scoring games would really make the “always 2” thing interesting, you could easily get 9-11 games where both teams got a TD and a FG. Also expect the short yardage RB to regain popularity in the league.
If the NFL is doing so well, than what is the argument for radially changing it?
They aren’t talking about radical changes. The PAT isn’t a big deal play, and people have been complaining for 20 years that it’s the least interesting play in all of sports. This is by no means the first time Goodell (or Tagliabeau) has talked about getting rid of it.
Sometimes.
Agreed. There’s a point football isn’t football; and it’s not like this posturing of his is likely to help their side in court anyway.
From 1969 through 1976 our school had a team that would win the league every year under his direction. When he left for another school during my senior year, I decided not to play football that year. He was THAT inspiring.
I decided to take a shot at theater. Oh boy, oh boy....you think football players get all the girls? No way. I had more "fun" doing stage productions than I ever had playing football.
Agree. Get rid of it. Useless play.
Parts of it. Parts of it can be improved. The whole PAT thing is extremely rarely interesting.
I say that they should make the ‘PAT’ a two-point conversion try by running or passing. That would make the game more exciting, put more pressure on teams and probably eliminate tie ball games.
“How about giving points for touchdown celebration choreography?”
LOL I think that you forgot the sarc tag. ;-)
Do you want those immature idiots to look more gay than they already do when they go into their dance routines?
If you think it’s a good idea, why not?
Seriously I would hope you detected some element of sarcasm in my suggestions.
The game would be so much more exciting if it involved two teams competing in verbal outbursts like that of this Stanford 4.0 GPA intellectual’s rant last Sunday evening.
You realize that would require major renovations of every football stadium in the country? They would have to ignore all previous records for passing or running.
“I wonder what that would look like?”
Yeah, then we could invade Canada and take over the Canadian football league! ;-)
They could also start playing this game with foots instead of armpits and crotches. Why is it called ‘football’?
Bring back the beheading of the losing team Captain!
OK Diana, am I a bad person if I LOL'ed at that?
Ditto. Great idea. Move it back to where the PAT percentage is 60%.......
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.