...or take off points if it's "the worm"....:o)
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.”
Maybe they should play it indoors with smaller fields - about the size of a hockey rink and add more narrow goal posts with nets on the side...oh wait...never mind.
The only changes that should be made is if you block and extra point, you should be able to return it for that same point. If you pick off a pass on a two point conversion or recover a fumble, you should be able to return it for the same two.
They could scrap the extra point kick, and require that you go for the two point conversion or nothing at all. They could require that the extra point be kicked from much farther away. They could do various things to add excitement to that play. I agree that the extra point has no excitement, when they make it 99+ % of the time.
Heck, even top relief pitchers in baseball only save about 90% of their save opportunities. Free throws in basketball are also in the low 90% range for the best there. Can’t think of anything else in sports which is so automatic as football’s extra point.
Heck, nowadays 50+ yard field goals are automatic.
...or take off points if it's "the worm"....:o)
Once you change the rules, they need to stop comparing records with past years.
My thoughts exactly!
He also wants to get rid of kick-offs
Maybe indoors, but not outside, especially in the winter.
I have an idea...Let’s lengthen the field to 110 yards....and how ‘bout this, they only get 3 downs instead of four....And we lengthen the end zone from 10 to 25 yards. I wonder what that would look like?
Bingo. He’s trying to build his legacy as the guy who made the game safer and more exciting. This game is quickly becoming unrecognizable.
just do what they do in the suburban Marxist wonderlands with kids sports and not keep score at all.
saves all the wear and tear on coaching decisions, and, everyone gets a superbowl trophy for trying.
Some things are better left alone. This is one of those.
No shoes for the place kicker...what might change things up.
I recommend muzzles&dead mics for sideline reporters and defensive backs after ‘in yur face’ plays.
The game is lost.. and so are a lot of fans who endured the crap the game has turned into.
It’s at the point now where the moment to game ends, I switch it off, I don’t care to watch the post-game celebrations and interviews....Glad I did that after the NFC Title game.
I don't like the guy at all.
but from the economic point of view, he's a huge success.
http://espn.go.com/nfl/playoffs/2013/story/_/id/10324195/2013-nfl-playoffs-nfl-conference-championship-games-tv-viewership-big
good point
What a great idea!
Agreed on the drop kick idea, better yet eliminate all place kicks, short field goals are practically just as automatic as PATs.
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