Kickers Are People Too

The NFL Owners meeting is coming up and, as always, rule changes are going to be discussed.  One topic of conversation that keeps being brought up is how the NFL can change the extra point after a touchdown.  While teams can always go for two, NFL head coaches are averse to doing so unless their little 2-point conversion chart tells them to do so.  While recent statistics note that kickers made 99.6% of extra points last year, some of the proposed rule changes seem, well, ridiculous. 

Bill Belichick’s Proposal:

This idea was officially proposed by the Patriot’s front man/czar but seems to be a favorite amongst league official.  The idea here is to move the extra-point to the 25-yardline.  This is a drastic change going from roughly a 17-yard field goal attempt to roughly a 42-yard field goal attempt.  While kickers this past season made a little over 90% of their kicks from this distance, this rule will end up taking points off the board.  Then there’s the issue of if a coach wants to go for two.  I haven’t heard where the ball would be spotted if a coach decided to forgo a kick for a 2-point attempt, but it would eliminate any fake field goal tries.  Basically, this idea is stupid.

Mike Tomlin’s Proposal:

Tomlin goes in the opposite direction from Belichick and wants to move the point after attempt closer to the goal line.  He wants to move the spot of the ball after a touchdown from the 2-yard line to the 1-yard line.  The idea here is that it would lead to more coaches going for two.  However, I tend to believe that if you can get one yard than you should be able to get two.  This also creates a little less space for players to run routes if a team wants to pass on a two-point conversion, again limiting options on this type of play.  This idea also seems stupid and pointless.

My proposal – not that anyone in the NFL gives two shits about my thoughts:

Place the ball at the five-yard line for the point after play.  As an added twist, mark the ball like you would for any other play.  If a touchdown is scored on the left then place the ball on the left hash mark.  If scored on the right side of the field then place the ball on the right hash mark.  If the touchdown is scored between the hash marks then place the ball accordingly.  This would add a little degree of difficulty to an extra-point kick.  If a coach wanted to go for two, the ball would be close enough to the endzone where a team could still try to run the ball or allow a little more room for receivers to run routes on passing plays.

The extra-point play does not need to be tampered with but the NFL Owners seem intent on doing something in the name of improving the game.  This seems like a silly topic for them to tackle and there are certainly bigger issues in the game that need to be dealt with.  While my proposal probably needs some tweaks, I still think it’s better than anything else that’s been offered up.  Please share your thoughts below.