After a week of pondering it, I have come to the conclusion that the NFL should eliminate field goals, extra points and kickoffs. To start the game the winner of the coin flip decides if they want to start on offense on their own 25 yard line or differ that option to the second half. After a team scores, the opposition gets the ball at their own 25. Let’s face it, this more or less is happening in the NFL now because it is so easy for these professional kickers to boot it through the end Oneonta kickoffs.
Furthermore after a team scores a touchdown they must go for two points. Extra points are boring, even though they backed up the attempt try a few yards most kickers still put it through like a chip shot (I won’t bring up the Vikings yet). This would bring in more strategy for the offensive coordinators to come up with creative plays to try score two points on.
I like high school games when a teams always goes for two. If you are good at it after three touchdowns you can be up 24-0 lickity-split. It is a huge advantage, and much more entertaining than a kicked extra point.
Scores would be different and if you were on a final numbers betting board eights, sixes, fours and twos all of a sudden would be better numbers to get than sevens, threes, ones and zeros. That being said it would be worth it to make the game better.
You might say I am coming at this as a Viking fan who just last week saw his team lose a game on a 37 yard field goal miss by Greg Joseph; raising the ghosts of Gary Anderson, Dan Bailey, Blair Walsh and Daniel Carlson (Carlson, who is good for the Raiders now), and your probably right. Because my team has struggled with the kicking game I don’t look at Justin Tucker’s record breaking 66 yard field goal against the Lions or Mason Crosby’s 52 yards to win the game against the 49ers as a great accomplishment. I just think 1) why not us and 2) wasn’t a finish like the “Minneapolis Miracle” more exciting than a kick? I think so.
I say this somewhat joking as a Viking fan, eliminate the kicker from the roster. It would make the game more entertaining, let the guys who play 98% of the time decide the game and would be a lot less painful for NFL fans wearing purple in the upper Midwest.
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