Pointless

In another attempt to put his own personal stamp on the game we all know and love, NFL commission Roger Goodell wants to eliminate the extra point in 2014.

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Michael Parente - [email protected]

Change can be good, if it’s for the right reasons. If you’re changing something just for the sake of making a change, then, quite frankly, you can keep your change.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell says the extra point attempt is too automatic, a boring play that serves no purpose other than allowing us to take a quick bathroom break following a touchdown. He wants to eliminate it altogether, making each touchdown worth seven points without the kick while still giving teams the option of attempting the two-point conversion to make it eight, but docking them a point and dropping it back to six if they fail.

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It’s the NFL’s version of “Let’s Make A Deal,” minus Wayne Brady. Change for the sake of making change. While the NFL should be more focused on revamping its hideous pass interference rule, which gives teams first downs at the spot of the foul, resulting in game-changing momentum swings on calls that are botched more than 75 percent of the time, it’s instead misdirecting its anger at a play that causes no harm whatsoever. 

This past year, only four misses occurred on the NFL’s 1,191 extra point attempts. All four were blocked. That’s a tremendous success rate, no doubt, but it still leaves room for human error. No matter how automatic the extra point seems, there’s that brief moment where your heart skips a beat until you actually see the ball sail through the uprights because, in the back of your mind, you know there’s always a chance something could go wrong, albeit a slim one.

Ten years ago in Jacksonville, all Saints’ kicker John Carney had to do was kick a routine extra point with six seconds remaining to send the game into overtime following a miraculous 75-yard touchdown that included three laterals and a 21-yard scamper by Jerome Pathon. Carney missed wide right and New Orleans lost a heartbreaker. Though it didn’t matter that year since the Saints finished 8-8, imagine if they missed a playoff berth by one game and Carney’s gaffe was the deciding factor. Imagine the fallout, the careers and lives that would’ve changed. Why rob us of such drama?  

Even Goodell’s proposal for centralized instant replay, which would mean all plays in question are reviewed at one location rather than at individual stadiums on game day, threatens to make the sport more robotic than ever, even if its intent (to get the call right) is good. 

Sometimes mistakes are the story. Infielders are supposed to get the glove down on ground balls, too, but on one fateful night 27 years ago in Queens, Bill Buckner failed to do so, and that moment still lives in infamy to this day. 

The isn't an issue about how eliminating extra points will change the game, because it actually won’t have any influence on whether or not coaches decide to go for two or just take the seven points. It’s about how far the league will continue to push the envelope. Why not eliminate the center-to-quarterback exchange on every offensive snap while we’re at it? Those are pretty foolproof, too, probably as successful per snap as the extra point. Allowing Goodell to play God with NFL tradition threatens to open a Pandora’s Box that won’t close anytime soon if he gets his way.

It’s hard to get a read on his intent. Maybe Goodell is jealous of all the headlines Bud Selig is getting these days in the aftermath of Alex Rodriguez’s suspension, the perfect parting gift for Selig as he carves his final legacy before walking off into the sunset at the end of next season. For better or worse, Selig made a lot of changes in his tenure as Major League Baseball commissioner, altering the All-Star Game, adding more teams to the postseason mix and ultimately enforcing stricter policies against steroid-users, even if he himself was a major part of the problem during the “Steroid Era.”

If Goodell really wants to follow in Bud’s footsteps, he should address the NFL’s steroid problem, the ultimate elephant in the room continuously swept under the rug because the league already has a testing policy in place. A-Rod weaseled his way through dozens of negative tests. Who’s to say NFL players haven’t been doing the same for years?

Either way, Goodell has made a tremendous, mostly positive, impact on the NFL, largely by rewriting the league’s Player Conduct Policy to hold players more responsible for their actions, which should be applauded unilaterally. Kudos on the outdoor Super Bowl, too. And the idea of turning the Pro Bowl into more of a pickup game where captains pick teams and a live draft is held has turned out to be a genius move in spicing up an otherwise boring afterthought. That’s something that needed to be done. Eliminating extra points is unnecessary. The game won’t be any shorter because of it, nor will it reduce injuries, eliminate penalties, promote goodwill among sovereign nations, or accomplish anything other than pissing off a bunch of kickers who, quite honestly, need the work. 

The NFL’s Competition Committee, which meets every off season to discuss such ideas, needs to stick to amendments that directly affect competitive balance – hence the name, Competition Committee – instead of wasting its time voting “Yay!” or “Nay!” on one of Goodell’s perverse fantasies. This wouldn't even be a problem if there weren't more pressing issues that demanded Goodell’s attention. Again, let’s discuss pass interference, which has a seismic impact on the way the game is played, not something Goodell himself admits is inconsequential one way or another. 

The NFL is the No. 1 sport in America, and nothing else comes close. Revenue each year tops out at about $9 billion, give or take, and advertisers are still willing to spend upwards of $4 million for a 30-second spot on Super Bowl. Keep your change, Roger. We like our game the way it is, extra points and all.