NFL moving extra points back ... in the preseason
By Frank Schwab
+Yahoo Sports - Shutdown Corner
I've never heard anyone complain about extra points. They're just there during NFL games, not hurting or helping the sport, just the bread before the meal at a steakhouse. Nobody talks about how the bread needs to be improved.
Somehow, extra points became a hot topic. For some reason this was the part of the game that had to dramatically change, either eliminating them or moving them back to make them tougher – because if there's something that will make the NFL better, it's putting the outcomes of more games on a kicker's shoulders.
It seems that the first step toward making the extra point a substantial part of the game is coming this preseason. For the first two preseason games, teams will line up to snap extra points from the 20-yard line, making them about 38 yards instead of 20, which has been the standard. A proposal for a new permanent rule to snap extra points from the 25-yard line was tabled. By experimenting in the preseason, the NFL can see how it goes and determine if that's something it wants to implement.
For anyone who likes this idea, remember that when your team drives down 80 yards for what looks like a game-tying touchdown in the final seconds of a hard-fought game, only to see the kicker miss a 37-yard kick. See if that scenario adds to the value of the game.
NFL Owners Meetings Proposed Rules Changes Update
The NFL did approve a rule making the goal posts five feet taller, which will make it easier for officials to determine if a field goal is good. Also passed was the "NaVorro Bowman rule," to allow officials to review the recovery of loose balls. Bowman stripped a ball in the NFC championship game, a play in which the 49ers' star linebacker hurt his knee, and had the ball in his possession, but the play was not reviewable. Now that kind of play will be subject to review.
I've never heard anyone complain about extra points. They're just there during NFL games, not hurting or helping the sport, just the bread before the meal at a steakhouse. Nobody talks about how the bread needs to be improved.
Somehow, extra points became a hot topic. For some reason this was the part of the game that had to dramatically change, either eliminating them or moving them back to make them tougher – because if there's something that will make the NFL better, it's putting the outcomes of more games on a kicker's shoulders.
For anyone who likes this idea, remember that when your team drives down 80 yards for what looks like a game-tying touchdown in the final seconds of a hard-fought game, only to see the kicker miss a 37-yard kick. See if that scenario adds to the value of the game.
NFL Owners Meetings Proposed Rules Changes Update
The NFL did approve a rule making the goal posts five feet taller, which will make it easier for officials to determine if a field goal is good. Also passed was the "NaVorro Bowman rule," to allow officials to review the recovery of loose balls. Bowman stripped a ball in the NFC championship game, a play in which the 49ers' star linebacker hurt his knee, and had the ball in his possession, but the play was not reviewable. Now that kind of play will be subject to review.
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