The 2014 Pro Bowl rosters have been set following the first ever Pro Bowl draft. The teams were drafted by captains Jerry Rice and Deion Sanders.
Im going to be honest, I didn’t partially enjoy the draft. Which was a shame, I am a very big fantasy football fan and was really looking forward to the Pro Bowl daft. I couldn’t help but feel unsatisfied after the two day daft, it felt a little scripted to me. I don’t like the format of picking each set of positions at a time especially in day one. Look the Pro Bowl has enough problems, its an exhibition game. I can’t blame the players for not being more physical and risking injury. I do really like the idea of the draft though, and I hope the NFL continues it, but I’m still not sold on doing away with conference based teams after watching what happened this year.
Extra point kick: Being kicked to the curb?
Commissioner Roger Goodell called the extra point “almost automatic.” In the 2013 session, 1,183 extra points kicks were attempted and only five were missed. No kicker missed more than one extra point in the entire season. That’s a success rate of 99.6 percent.
“Are there any plays in the game that really are not consequential?” Goodell said. “You want to add excitement with every play.”
“There’s one proposal in particular that I’ve heard about,” Goodell said. “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.” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell
“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.” New England Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick
I personally don’t like the idea of doing away completely with the point after kick. I think you’re opening the door in the future for the NFL to get rid of field goals or punts/kickoffs. I don’t want kicking out of the NFL. With that said I’m not opposed to making a change as long as we prevent the league from going too far.
Perhaps the league can narrow the goal posts, or move the kick back to the 35 or 40-yard line. I’m all for making it harder to make an extra point, as if its harder there is more risk of the kicker missing and it becomes more exciting. With the added risk, it becomes more of a gamble for the coaches and we may see more attempts at two-point conversions during the game.
There are just so many things to think about if they narrow the goal posts. Do you go for it on 4th down more instead of kicking a long FG? Do you go for two or risk the extra point? So many variables, the weather or how close the game is. If the goal of the NFL is to make the game more exciting then I think this would do it.
I don’t buy that its all about safety, I think its about the perception of safety, and giving the league a talking point. I think its about creating a buzz, something for everyone to talk about, something to be debated while the real issues of safety are ignored.
I completely agree that the extra point as it stands now is to0 automatic. So lets make it harder, but lets not take the foot out of football. Keep the TD at 6 points, lets try and make the game better, more exciting without changing the game we all love.
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