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.”
For extra points they should quintuple the size of the ball and set it on fire.
Or increase the distance and make it the same conditions as a field goal.
If they want to eliminate something - eliminate the ‘break the plane’ for a touchdown. It’s called a TOUCHDOWN for a reason which means the ball has to be controlled and touched down for a score.
To increase the value of a touchdown, eliminate the PAT, make it a ‘try’ worth 2 points and make the field goal worth 2.
That would be a rational solution and in spirit with the integrity of the game. Unfortunately it's totally retro in the 21st century. KarlInOhio is in the spirit of the age:
How about giving points for touchdown celebration choreography? A nice five minute dance routine can give you up to three extra points while the officials review the touchdown.
Excellent idea. In fact, there should probably be an NFL All-Star team named in this category, with the MVP awarded an iconic trophy, "The Jolson," for the best impersonation of Al Jolson by an NFL player. Extra credit for white guys who do it in blackface, and black guys who do it in whiteface, just to be fair
The runner up could get "Big Man," for the best rendition of a pre-K playground chest bump. I always wondered where that stuff came from in professional sports. Then I had kids, and now I know.
My own suggestion would be to bring in one of those lottery machines that spits out the random marked ping pong balls. Fill it with balls marked everywhere from zero to eight. Whatever pops out is your PAT score. Just think what that would do for viewership -- uniting America's two great addictions, football and gambling. The NFL would love it.
If they are thinking of scrapping things...scrap the two minute warning. There is no real game reason to have it now that official game time is no longer kept on the field.
College, high school and pee wee football do just fine without it.
Why does it have to be interesting? It’s not the XFL. It’s not professional wrestling.
A clear case of a solution seeking a problem. Just move the ball back 20 to 30 yards if they want to create more uncertainty.
What court?
Their approach to tackling?
If it's not broken, why wreck it?
Funniest one I heard about was making the player who scored the TD attempt the kick.
-PJ
Again, do like soccer, where only the official knows how much time is left. Even though soccer gave in, and started revealing how many minutes of injury time (or as they call it in England, "Fergie Time"), they have.
Have you not paid any attention to the concussion lawsuit? Tackling IS broken, has been for a long time, too many defensive players are too addicted to the BIG HIT to get themselves on Sports Center, and giving other players permanent brain damage in the process. Anybody that was watching Red Zone last season when 3 players in different games got knocked cold in about 5 minutes knew changes were coming and were necessary. It’s way past time to get players back to ACTUALLY tackling like they did in the 70s and 80s before turning themselves into concussion missiles became a path to bonuses.
They are adding a 2 minute to the first and third quarters in the ALL-STAR GAME, formerly known as the Pro-Bowl
Just give them 3 points if they shoot out beyond the 25 foot touchdown arc......oops, got my tattooed up gangster thug, unmarried multiple baby daddy, druggie leagues mixed up again.
Of all the possible ideas to take from soccer their insipid timing system is the one to reject the hardest. Nobody but the ref knowing how much time is left is just plain stupid, maybe in the 3rd world where they can’t afford jumbotron game clocks it can come in handy, but in a land where we can afford big clocks there’s just no reason for it.
I could see the point in soccer, so that teams don’t let up when they see 45 minutes have gone.....but revealing the amount of injury time pretty much defeated the purpose of it.
It’s still the pro-bowl. And it will still be unwatchable. And it will still get better ratings than other sports’ championship games.
Indeed, or how about bringing back, somehow, the old Drop Kick? Change the rules to make it more effective and useful...
The only point was ever technical, most timed games at some point had similar things going on, then big game clocks got easy to use and official time keepers were put in place, and all the sports but soccer joined the early 20th century.
no kick-offs, no AFC vs NFC
no point
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