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 Networks Total Access, and took things a step further than Belichick, indicating that the leagues 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 theres one proposal in particular that Ive heard about (where) its 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, youd go back to six.
Its 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.
Theres 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 thats what the committee does. Theyll make, obviously, some focus on this in the committee and see where they come out.
How about if you go out of bounds, the ball gets turned over to the other team? H’mmm, perhaps they could have a designated hitter instead of a kicker. For the extra point a guy is given a baseball bat and has to hit the ball into the end zone?
My bottom line. Football scoring isn’t broken, thus no need to “fix it.” Of course the criminals will always try to bribe someone in order to fix the game.
I’ll go one better. Have both offenses on the field at the same time, lined up against each other at the 50. Coaches decide how to divvy up their 11 players between offense and defense. New line of scrimmage is set where the team who advanced the most was downed. Pandemonium!
Why don’t they just make the point after kick a playable act. If the opposing teams blocks it, the ball is in play.
Will make the players work harder to block it. Also add if the kicking team recovers and puts it in the endzone it is 2 points.
Problem solved with minimal effort.
The sudden death situation is what makes overtime exciting and regulation play a total waste of time once the winning team gains possession in the final seconds.
They could do a scrum like in Rugby.
Do you speak Canadian?
Haha.... That’s actually a game changer and much more appealing that the onside kick
I disagree.
Just make running/passing the ball 3 points — that’s some motivation to do something else.
Exactly, keep the ball until the other team stops you.
That’s called Rugby
Well why not just pull player’s numbers out of a hat and make them randomly try to kick the PAT. Or have them shoot craps in the back of the endzone.
Or do away with lame half time shows and replace them with win or die gladiator combat. There are so many things we can change about football.
Or just not change it at all.
Seriously?
The one change I WOULD like to see is when a personal foul is committed on an extra point or a touchdown play the penalty should be assessed AFTER the kickoff. Not ON the kickoff.
With the ball already being kicked from the 35, assessing a 15 yard penalty means a kickoff from the 50. What good is that? How does that penalize the offending team?
Assessing the penalty AFTER the kickoff would place the ball on the 5 yard line (in the case of a touchback). Now THATS a penalty. Or 15 yards back from where the ball is downed after a run back. If the returner runs the ball out and is tackled at the 15 or less then half the distance to the goal line.
In the case of a run back for a TD then the penalty would be assessed ON the kickoff forcing the offending team to kickoff from their 20 yard line.
The penalty for a personal foul should hurt. The players do it now on extra points and TDs because they KNOW there is no real downside.
5.56mm
How about instituting the power play, if a player commits a penalty, they sit out a play and the other team has a man advantage.
Or do like in Soccer, and if a player commits two personal fouls in a game the team is shorthanded the rest of the game.
Ref is thinking: “Seriously??? Did I just see a grown man flopping around like a crack-addicted walrus on national TV???”
Get rid of the PAT and the kickoff?
One more change and they can no longer call it “football”.
But it never really was a ball, was it?
Ball
noun
1. a spherical or approximately spherical body or shape; sphere.
Football is BORING? (Idiots!)
Bring back the beheading of the losing team Captain!
As an Eagles fan since birth, I vividly remember the Miracle at the Meadowlands. I’ll bet Giants fans wish that Pisarcik would have knelt on it. I agree though, that I hate the quarterback kneel down.
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