NFL eyeing proposal to abolish extra points

[ShowtimeSBMVP]

NFL eyeing proposal to abolish extra points
1


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."

[cosmo20002]

Remember when the goalposts were on the goal line? I don't, but I saw it on TV. Players kept cracking themselves on it so they moved it to the back of the end zone.

I wonder if there was a shit storm then about players being pussies and ruining the game by making FGs longer.

[cosmo20002]

Originally Posted by scho63

Abolish Roger Goodell-problem solved

Why would that make a difference? Will the new commissioner not act as the owners want him to?

[tomahawk kid]

Originally Posted by scho63

Abolish Roger Goodell-problem solved

God - so much of this.

That SOB just HAS to mess with EVERYTHING.

[cosmo20002]

Originally Posted by tomahawk kid

God - so much of this.

That SOB just HAS to mess with EVERYTHING.

The owners must really be shocked at everything he is doing to screw with the game. They are defenseless against Goodell, who apparently is the boss of the owners.

[tomahawk kid]

Originally Posted by cosmo20002

The owners must really be shocked at everything he is doing to screw with the game. They are defenseless against Goodell, who apparently is the boss of the owners.

It sure didn't seem like as many things were being changed, or considered to be changed, under Paul T.

[cosmo20002]

Originally Posted by tomahawk kid

It sure didn't seem like as many things were being changed, or considered to be changed, under Paul T.

You probably just don't remember, and a lot of the rule stuff is related to concussions which didn't really emerge as the major issue it is now until after Paul T. Point is, NONE of this stuff--rule changes, adding teams to the playoffs, what days games are played-- is done without explicit approval from the owners, and they likely suggest a lot of it. He is carrying out their wishes.

We can only imagine the kind of stuff that is suggested behind the scenes. I'd be surprised if there weren't at least proposals for TV games every night of the week, adding a couple rounds to the playoffs, teams in Mexico and London, and who knows what else.

Not that I'm a Goodell fan or anything, I just think the blame should go to where it belongs.

[GloryDayz]

Originally Posted by cosmo20002

The owners must really be shocked at everything he is doing to screw with the game. They are defenseless against Goodell, who apparently is the boss of the owners.

They are neither shocked nor defenseless, they are simply money-whores who are paying him well to take the heat for moves that might somehow lead to more money. But I think you already knew all of that.

[ChiliConCarnage]

Originally Posted by Sannyasi

If the extra point did not already exist, there would not be single person arguing in its favor.

This is a really salient point. If the game currently existed with every team going for two after a touchdown nobody would argue for a boring single automatic point kick to be added.

Either way, kicking in general has become too good. Ryan Succop had the 28th best kicking accuracy this season. That put him 12% better at kicking FGs than Jan Steneruds career average.

Just in the last decade there has been a huge jump. This year Rob Bironas was the 20th most accurate FG kicker at 86.2%. In 2002, that would have placed him as the 5th most accurate. That includes the fact that there are far more 50+ yarders taken this season.

Kickers haven't missed a kick inside of 40 yards yet in the playoffs.

[BigMeatballDave]

I don't really care about the PAT.

Also, I used to have a lot of anger towards Goodell.

After thinking about it, he's only doing what the owners want him to do.

[BigMeatballDave]

Originally Posted by cosmo20002

The owners must really be shocked at everything he is doing to screw with the game. They are defenseless against Goodell, who apparently is the boss of the owners.

Come on, man. You gotta be smarter than this.

[morphius]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

If you believe wikipedia, the extra point was once worth more than a touchdown. You scored a touchdown to get the opportunity to kick an extra point.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convers...iron_football)

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.)[citation needed]

So we could take the rugby rule and where you score is where you kick from. So a fade corner route would lead you being stuck kicking it from the sideline.

(I believe it is where the player is forced to put the ball down in the try in rugby area is where you kick from on the field)

[cosmo20002]

Originally Posted by BCD

Come on, man. You gotta be smarter than this.

Well, I was being sarcastic if that's what you mean. Goodell acts on behalf of the owners.

[GloryDayz]

Originally Posted by cosmo20002

Well, I was being sarcastic if that's what you mean. Goodell acts on behalf of the owners.

You, sarcastic??? No!!!!!!!!!!

[BlackHelicopters]

The owners are trying to maximize revenue any way possible. If eliminating the extra point is profitable, they will find a way to make it happen.

[alnorth]

Originally Posted by bowener

Narrow the goalposts by 3' on each side, making them 12'6" wide, and add another 10' at the top, and raise the bottom bar to 12' (which stops the stupid dunks). Have extra points be kicked from a hashmark of choice by the opposition. That would be a pretty extreme angle at 2 yards.

This would also make 60+ field goals much more difficult by raising the bar (literally). And I would like to add the extra 10' at the top to help take the error of human element out of the refs hands.

This all seems much more logical than doing away with the PAT.

Or we can just get rid of the stupid PAT.

There is no logical reason for the PAT to even exist, other than "we always had it".