The Competition Committee has been open to the possibility that extra points maybe longer. The extra point has been in discussion about a change in different direction in recent months. A couple of higher executives thinks that the extra point is automatic and may want to change the concept of making it harder for opponents exchange points. One concept that the committee had thought about changing was the how far a kicker has to kick to get the extra point, while others thought about changing the total number of points of a touch down from 6 points to 7 points. If a coach decides to go for a 2-point conversion and does not get the ball in the endzone than the number of points drops from 7 back to 6.
“I’m sure it will be discussed, but that’s a wide departure,” veteran committee member Jeff Fisher said on ESPN’s “Mike and Mike in the Morning,” via ProFootballTalk. “The committee and the league has always been real careful about drastic changes like that. That came out of left field. It would be interesting to see where it goes, but I would say it’s unlikely that we see something happen this year.”
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell told the NFL Network that the league’s competition committee could consider abolishing the PAT.”The extra point is almost automatic,” Goodell told NFL Network. “I believe we had five missed extra points this year out of 1,200 some odd [attempts]. So it’s a very small fraction of the play, and you want to add excitement with every play.”
In 2013 the extra points there were made was 1,256, while there were only 5 misses last season. The percent of successful PATs were 99.6%.
Patriots coach Bill Belichick had disagreed with Goodell’s idea of changing a historical feature that was installed in the NFL over 40 plus years. “I personally would love to see the kicking game remain as a very integral part of the game so that the kickoffs are returned and so that extra points are not over 99 percent converted because that’s not what extra points were when they were initially put into the game back 80 years ago, whatever it was.”
“I would be in favor of not seeing it be an over 99 percent conversion rate,” the New England head coach said. “It’s virtually automatic. That’s just not the way the extra point was put into the game. It was an extra point that you actually had to execute and it was executed by players who were not specialists, they were position players. It was a lot harder for them to do. The Gino Cappellettis of the world and so forth and they were very good. It’s not like it is now where it’s well over 99 percent. I don’t think that’s really a very exciting play because it’s so automatic says Bill.”
The extra point is among the oldest parts of the game of gridiron football and dates to its soccer roots. In its earliest days, scoring a touchdown was not the primary objective. Scoring a field goal was worth 5 points, scoring a touchdown was worth 1 point, and the extra point would be worth 4. By the start of the 20th century, touchdowns had become more important. By this time, the point value for the P.A.T. kick had reduced to its current value, one-point The touchdown was now worth five. In 1912, the touchdown was increased to six.
New York Jets Kicker Nick Folk had even came up with an idea to keep the game the same, but add suspense to it as well. For extra points, Folk said, kicks would have to sail between the two middle uprights. For field goals, everything would stay the same—the outer uprights would still be the target, and it wouldn’t matter if a field goal try clanged off one of the middle uprights, since the ball would be between the outer uprights anyway.
“It would make it harder,” said Folk. “That could be a new way to do it because I don’t know what the percentage would be. Even if it’s 90 percent, then it’s not as automatic and you’re still dealing with the elements that can affect the ball going through there.”
This will be one of the topics that will be discussed further on in the offseason. Some players like the idea of taking away the extra point, but others oppose changing the game of football.
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