The NFL’s commissioner Roger Goodell is considering eliminating the extra point after a touchdown. The play is arguably the most boring, where nearly every kick scores, and blocks hardly happen. Many argue the extra point is too easy and a waste of valuable play time. “The extra point is almost automatic,” Goodell said, via NFL.com. ”I believe we had five missed extra points this year out of 1,200 some odd. So it’s a very small fraction of the play, and you want to add excitement with every play.” But if the extra point is banished, what could replace it?
Goodell explained the alternate, ”It’s automatic that you get seven points when you score a touchdown, but you could potentially go for an eighth point, either by running or passing the ball, so if you fail, you go back to six.”
The new proposal received mixed reviews, some asking what’s the difference between that and the extra point/two point conversion. New England Patriots coach, Bill Bellichick would be a supporter of the new proposal, as he stated in an interview earlier this month that the extra point has become too easy. ”I would be in favor of not seeing it be an over 99 percent conversion rate,” Belichick 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 … I don’t think that’s really a very exciting play because it’s so automatic.”
Although the extra point can be boring, sometimes it could be the most exciting part when the game is on the line. In 2003′s New Orleans versus Jacksonsville game, the Saints trailed 20-13 with seven seconds remaining. After the Saints scored a huge touchdown, kicker John Carney missed the extra point, resulting in Jacksonville robbing the victory with a 20-19 final score.