NFL eyeing proposal to abolish extra points
 

NFL eyeing proposal to abolish extra points
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By Marc Sessler
Around the League Writer
Published: Jan. 20, 2014 at 04:53 p.m.
Is the extra point about to go the way of the dinosaur?

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told NFL Network's Rich Eisen on Monday that the league's Competition Committee might eventually abolish the time-tested point after touchdown in favor of a brand-new scoring system.

"The extra point is almost automatic," Goodell said. "I believe we had five missed extra points this year out of 1,200 some odd. So it's a very small fraction of the play, and you want to add excitement with every play.

"There's one proposal in particular that I've heard about. 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, so if you fail, you go back to six."

Extra points have become an afterthought. Unless you're up against Lawrence Taylor in Tecmo Bowl, there's virtually zero drama attached to the point after. Taylor's old coach Bill Belichick has often opined about about how unnecessary the extra point feels.

Goodell said "some issues" stand in the way of a change, asking: "Is that going to discourage people from going for two?"

We doubt it. Teams inclined to go for the deuce will continue to do so in situations that call for an eight-point score -- with the same potential consequences. Traditionalists might disagree, but this is a good idea long overdue.

Well, unless you're a kicker.

Goodell's entire interview will air Monday night at 8 p.m. ET on NFL Network's "Total Access."

Goodell to abolish form tackling and play with flags

Goodell needs to just go away, he's ruining the league.

Hmmm... I want to hate this proposal but I really can't.

The downside is removing the tactic of lining up in the kick formation and running a fake but it's not like coaches opt for that option anyway.

Goodell to abolish linemen going forward. No rushing of the passer allowed anymore.

:rolleyes:

That's pretty much where I'm at as well.

I'd love to be all rabble, rabble, rabble "Goodell is ruining everything I love", but extra points are time wasted in a football game.

It's pretty easy to hate. All Goodell cares about is scoring, and this will force teams to go for two (as in, MOAR POINTZZZZ). He's watering down the league one rule change at a time.

Why don't they consider moving the extra point kicks back so they are not so automatic?


I posted a thread awhile back from a Peter King I think that argued that NFL kickers have become too good.

Extra points are an opportunity for an extra commercial break for the NFL. I doubt they abolish them. That said, they should. What a waste of time.

Also I feel like it might improve the game flow.

Say a team scores a TD that looks iffy and it goes to automatic review. TV timeout, but in the 30-45 seconds the play's upheld and scoring team opts to take the point and kickoff. When action resumes from a TV view's standpoint there's about to be a kickoff whereas currently they might break back in for the score and then take commercial after the XP or 2-point conversion.

It doesnt sound like such a terrible thing, whats irksome is just Goodells penchant for constantly changing shit, seems like this guy has made more changes than the last two commissioners combined.

I'm reeeally sick of this butthole.

Make it a 35 yard attempt.

The NFL could do what rugby does and force the kicker to attempt the XP from where on the field the TD was scored. That would make it more difficult.

Example: Charles hits the outside, and just sneaks inside the pylon for the TD. Succop then has to kick from that sideline.

I'd hate that. Why not move it back to a distance where it's not such a gimmie. Spot it on the 20 and let them kick a 37 yarder. Depending on conditions it might cause coaches to go for 2 points more often.

But there again it removes a fake FG formation from a coach's playbook..

This is dumb. The outcomes are exactly the same as they are now, except that there is no chance at all to miss the extra point. That means less drama in the game than there is now. Wasn't the reason for changing the rules to increase the excitement?

I like the idea of eliminating the point after. They just about never miss and it's boring. The scoring needs to be worked out so that there is a decent risk/reward involved. I guess I wouldn't mind giving the scoring team the option of taking the 7 or going for 8 after a score.

No, the reason for this is the same reason for all of Goodell's other rule changes - to increase scoring with zero regard to its effects on the product as a whole.

Why would it force teams to go for two? You make no sense.

Yeah, I agree with that.

This actually sounds excellent, but make a maximum distance so that the 35 yard line or something like that is the maximum distance for a kick. But this also punishes teams for scoring long touchdowns so I don't know. Sounds exciting though.

Another option would be to bring in a random fan for the extra point. That would be cool but would never happen. Funny to think though a big 250 lb. woman coming in for the PAT. Haha

Uh, no. A team would have the option of taking a free point, or going for two. It wouldn't force anything.

The extra point is a worthless play. If they can do it successfully 99.9% of the time, it might not be worth doing.

This is a little confusing: "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, so if you fail, you go back to six."

So a TD is worth 7. Then you can go for an extra point via run or pass, but if you fail, you lose a point? That seems too weird.

This proposal would bring into question any FG attempts from that distance. Why would they not get that same status as being automatic?

Maybe they could toss some random animals onto the field to spice things up? Perhaps some of those little monkeys infected with hemorrhagic fever.

Not that I care about Goodell, but he's not in charge. He doesn't change shit unless the owners want him to change it.

In rugby, I believe they have a set distance for those kicks, but I can't find it off-hand. Anyway, my intention was for this kick to be attempted along a horizontal line that stretches from sideline to sideline.

Fake EP.

Yeah, the sentence structure is weird in that quoted bit. What they mean is that when you score a TD you get 6 points. After that you can accept a free 1 point (for 7) and go kick off, or decide to run a 2 point play under current rules (for 8). If your play fails, you are left with the points you scored for a TD (6) and you go kick off.

Because you haven't scored a TD to earn the right to kick for a virtually automatic score.

You have a point, but how many fgs are kicked inside the 2yd line in a game? Teams will still have to kick those.

OK, just stop with the rugby.

If this rule is enacted, expect some network to do a montage of every missed XP ever filmed. ESPN will do a forty five minute special on it. Hell, maybe a whole week.

good

An excellent point.

Yeah, **** the sport that inspired the sport we're discussing.

So you punish team for making a great long play? but a 1 yard run gets free points? thats kinda dumb.

I dont hate his idea, but i would like to see them allow better defenses. So many games where teams are scoring in the 40s and 50's now. Its Arena Like.

Clearly you have not invested a lot of time in watching the Kansas City Chiefs.

Field goals at this distance are not nearly as prevalent as extra points. Further, the field goal is for three points, where the extra point is just one point.

I like getting rid of the extra point for this scenario Goodell speaks of!! But don't remove the kicker entirely from the game please, move the damn kickoffs back to where they were so every one of them are not out the back of the endzone! Talk about boring!!

The try/convert is among the oldest parts of the game of gridiron football and dates to its rugby roots. In its earliest days, scoring a touchdown was not the primary objective but a means of getting a free kick at the goal (hence why the name "try," more commonly associated with rugby today, is still used in American football rule books), and thus early scoring rubrics for the game gave more points to the subsequent kick than the actual advancement of the ball into the end zone. The related term "conversion" is still used in both rugby union and rugby league to refer to extra points scored by kicking the ball through the posts after a try has been scored.

By the start of the 20th century, touchdowns had become more important and the roles of touchdown and kick were reversed. By this time the point value for the after-touchdown kick had reduced to its current one-point value while the touchdown was now worth five. (This later increased to six points in American football in 1912 and in Canadian football in 1956.)<sup class="Template-Fact" style="white-space:nowrap;">[citation needed]</sup>

Although a successful kick is only worth one point, missing one can decide the outcome of the game. Perhaps the most famous example to this was the 2003 game between the New Orleans Saints and Jacksonville Jaguars where, after scoring a touchdown as time expired as a result of the multiple-lateral River City Relay, Saints kicker John Carney missed the extra point, giving the Jaguars a 20-19 victory and eliminating the Saints from playoff contention. On November 11, 1979 the New York Jets lost to the Buffalo Bills 14-12 - the difference coming from two missed extra points by place kicker Toni Linhart. Linhart never played another game in the NFL.

Another 2003 game, this one between the Carolina Panthers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, was sent to overtime after what would have been a game-winning extra point was blocked; the Panthers won the game in overtime 12-9. A 2005 game between the Green Bay Packers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers is another notable exception, as the Buccaneers won 17-16, the difference being Ryan Longwell missing an extra point after a Packers touchdown.<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference">[1]</sup>



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Extra points are kicked from the exact middle of the field on the 2-yard-line. Field goals are kicked from where the play ended or one of the hash marks. With the angle, its a tougher kick (although not as tough as in college, which always confused me a bit)

OK. But really the end result is still pretty much taking points off the board. You've got the free point in your pocket. But fail on your extra-extra point, you lose the free point you had.

But, I suppose the current kicking of the EP is about the same as a free point when they make it 99.9% of the time. Going for two is about like taking a free one off the board. Hmmm...

So it's about the same deal but "seems" different.

You make it sound like 1 point ain't no big deal.

In my kids' Pee Wee league, they gave 2 points for the kick and 1 point for a play. Because barely any of the kids could kick one. It was kind of funny and added excitement when a team would go for two.

Perhaps, but 99%+ is still 99%+. If they're going to consider it automatic for one point, it's got to be automatic for 3 points if they're going to be logically consistent, because the issue is the high success rate.

And, for the record, 1 point can be all the difference in the world. Just ask the Patriots about that after yesterday's missed conversion attempt. Had they only needed 7 there, that game's still in play game at that point.

I have, I've just taken to jamming a hanger up my nose on Mondays. It's bliss I tells ya!

No argument will ever be won by saying, "In rugby they do this..."

Pretty much. It's virtually the same gamble as now, but you eliminate the "gimme" play and just go kick the ball off. I think game flow would be better.

You're simultaneously over and under thinking this one.

Seems like a good change to me. I actually wouldn't mind forcing teams to go for 2 although I'm sure some purists will tell me why I'm a moron for wanting to replace a routine play with an exciting one. But at the very least let's get rid of the extra point. Its a waste of time.

And that, my friends, is the basis for all NFL decisions in teh degenerate-al age...

Well, but a EP is a set distance every time. A FG varies. If a team earns the field position for a short FG, that's just the way it is.

I do recall discussions from time to time about making longer FGs worth more, shorter ones worth less.

I realize that the league will just ignore the logic problem. That doesn't mean we shouldn't point it out.

So much for the "integrity of the game."

I posted it to point out how outdated the extra point kick really is. It's more like, "We should stop, because in rugby they do this and we aren't playing rugby."

EP kicks in rugby aren't limited by a narrow set of hash marks. They can be attempted along the sideline, if that happens to be where the player scored the try.

Goodell's complaint was that EPs were too easy and "automatic". I proposed something to make them more difficult.

**** it, ban the FG formation for the PAT and make the scoring team try a drop-kick or go for two.

no foot in football??

Instead of abolishing it, spice it up by erecting a giant skee-ball apparatus behind the goal posts. Now you have multiple scoring oportunites!!

I would rather get rid of them.

How will it force teams to go for two? You get seven automatically. But if you go for two and fail, you get six. Same as now, only you just don't have to kick the extra point if you are ok with 7.

The kicks, or the hash marks? I agree either way.

How many times did teams attempt two points this year instead of the EP? What percentage?

So move the XP to the 20.

At least then the wind and rush has a legitimate impact...

The kicks, but I wouldn't be upset if they dropped the hashes as well.

Make it a longer kick. Simple.

There is no logic problem. If they do this they can remove 5-10 worthless plays per game. Heck, now when teams get inside the 2 often they'll just go for it on 4th. There were a whopping 12 19yd fgs in the entire NFL this year out of 998 total. There were 1267 xps.

Sweet then we can start valuing kickers more, just what everyone wants!

I like it.

Except on the rare occasions when it is missed/blocked and it ads something to the game. Im in favor of keeping it as is for that reason.

And the transformation of a once great game continues. Why in the hell do they have to keep ruining this sport.

You enjoy the PAT?

5 out of 1267 kicks. Or 5 out of 256 games. 2% of games potentially affected.

Clark must be on Chiefsplanet, because I proposed this exact idea a while back.

Clark, if you're reading this, good job. Post once in a while, and be sure to vote in the sceneitall tournament. And my company does analytics if you ever want to get a competitive upper hand.

What about making the amount of points variable by yardage and method for the Points After Attempt?

< 25 yardline for a kick is 1 point, conversion 2 points.
26-35 a kick is two, conversion 3.
36+ kick is 3, conversion 4 or 5 points...

Yes I do like it actually because while its extremely rare to miss it has decided some games before.

Kind of like a 1 percent chance to blow a 28 point lead.

A ****ing RT just went no 1 in the draft.

Yeah, that's ****ing providing excitement...

No extra point gives time for two more network commercials. Cha-ching.