Let's Make NFL Extra Points Interesting
2:22 PM EST Sunday, December 21 2008
In this year's NFL season, kickers are 1024 out of 1029, 99.5% on extra points. I bet if you looked at those 5 misses, they are the cause of a botched snap/hold or blocked. The fact that is that extra points are a mere formality, a foregone conclusion.
Imagine if in the NBA, each team had a designated free throw shooter. Every time your team had to shoot free throws, you bring in the free throw specialist. Every NBA team would have some guy like Ted St. Martin, who once, at the age of 60, made 5,221 free throws in a row. This player, at the age of 60, is obviously completely incapable of playing on the team for a normal play, because we lacks the athleticism to compete against other players, which is why the rules of basketball don't allow for a designated free throw shooter. The player who gets fouled must shoot the free throw. If instead you have a designated free throw shooter, who is a 99.5% free throw shooter, shoot all free throws, there is no drama, it's just a boring foregone conclusion.
So instead of having allowing the place kicker to kick all extra points in the NFL, imagine if the player who scored the touchdown had to kick the extra point. If the player who scored is injured or completely incapable of making an extra point, then you have to go for two. Each team would still have a kicker for field goals, because 40 and 50 yard field goals are much harder. The fact is that kicking an extra point is not that hard, so having all players have to kick extra points would add to the drama, as well as the comedy. Imagine an a defensive tackle who scoops up a fumble and runs it in for a touchdown trying to kick an extra point.
If you love this idea, link to this article on facebook, delicious, your blog, whatever, let's wee if we can get this into the mainstream media and who knows, maybe the NFL would even consider it. At least it will be fun to argue about.
