Making His Own Game: NFL Commish Goodell Toying With Eliminating Extra Point

Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

The Pittsburgh Steelers place kicker Shaun Suisham has been referred to as ‘money.’  In fact, myself and others on Twitter often have a little fun when typing out his name with some dollar signs: $haun $ui$ham.  His field goal attempts inside the 40 yard line (save for a few) are pretty much automatic.  He’s even more automatic when it comes to extra point attempts.  And according to NFL Commissioner Rodger Goodell, a high success rate is a problem.

Ginger Jag sat down with NFL Network’s Rich Eisen on Monday and revealed that the league is considering eliminating the extra point attempt.

"The extra point is almost automatic. 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."

So what does Goodell and the league want as the alternative?  A touchdown equals seven points instead of six.  Well you can’t get any more automatic than that.  Teams would still be able to go for 2, but if they fail, their score will be reduced to 6 instead of 7.

Alright, let’s get one thing straight – I agree that the extra point is a rather automatic play.  There is still always the chance of a block or a botched kick by the place kicker, but those are rare.  An argument that Bleacher Report writer Tim Keeny makes is that removing the extra point could lessen the chance of injury on what could be construed as a useless play.  I get that.

What my problem with this (and with most things that involve Ginger Jag) is that Goodell is willing to eliminate such a traditional part of the game in order to eliminate something he considers not very exciting – aka boring.  Instead of perhaps making it more challenging he would rather take the easy way out and just do away with it altogether.  Traditionalists are reeling, many are scratching their head.  Is there anyone who can actually get behind this logic?

Why couldn’t the extra point be moved back to the 5 or even the 10 yard line?  Make it a 25 yard attempt.  Believe it or not, as much as Goody Goody thinks that the extra point attempt is worth… well… not even an extra point, it factors in as a huge part of the strategy of the game.  Factor in all the different point combinations and that one point is pretty important between a win or loss.  Then why get rid of it when there’s a possibility of that attempt failing?

I thought the job of the commish was to make the game better while in office, not water it down in his own quirky way.  Wouldn’t it be more fun to take a play that might not be as exciting and make it more challenging – thereby peeking the interest in the fans?  Am I the minority in this?

Maybe I’m upset because I’ll be sad that I won’t get as many butt pinches from my wife after her “Shaun Squeezum” puts the football through the uprights…. Goodell, always ruining my fun.