Let's really make the PAT "a real football play"

NFL owners this week are looking to change the all too predictable PAT by making the attempt, as some have put it, “a real football play.” Three proposals are being considered, all with the PAT kick being moved back to the 15-yard line and the two-point attempt being played from the 1 or 2.

I have nothing against kickers, but why don’t NFL owners just eliminate the kicking aspect of the PAT altogether and make coaches got for two after every touchdown?

We’d have “real football plays” with real drama all over the place. Is that too much to ask?

Kicking has been a part of the NFL since its inception, and I’m not suggesting owners eliminate the position. Place kickers would still be called on to kick field goals and to kick off.

And they could still come on to attempt those popular drop kicks.

The game changes and for the better most of the time. Just as drop kicks went by the wayside, point-after kicks need to do the same. 

The current rule makes the PAT an almost automatic point for the scoring team. Twenty six of the 32 teams in the NFL did not miss an extra point in 2014. The others only missed one or two.

The two-point conversion is far less predictable. NFL teams convert that play about 50 percent of the time.

But here is the problem: 32- or 33-yard field goals – the proposed new PAT distance – are only slightly less predictable. Fourteen NFL kickers converted 100 percent of their kicks between 30 and 39 yards in 2014. Sixteen others converted kicks between 30 and 39 yards between 86 and 93 percent of the time.

So how much owners are affecting change is debatable. NFL coaches know the statistics. If they score four touchdowns in a game and go for two four times they are likely get four points. But why take the chance when they can send their kicker out there and pretty much guarantee your team four points?

Not to mention the proposed changes will favor dome teams or teams that happen to play in domes late in the season when other teams are forced to deal with the elements. Do we really want a playoff game decided because of a snowstorm in New England or Pittsburgh or New York? What if a kicker misses a 32-yard kick because of weather conditions in Buffalo while another team in the same late-game situation opts to boot a gimme PAT in a dome in New Orleans or St. Louis?

Eliminating the kicker from PATs is best solution, but we won’t get that this time around. The owners are too busy putting a band-aid on the problem rather than fixing it.

*Some of the following was published in this blog months ago, but it’s worth revisiting.

The Steelers have been one of the most successful teams in the league under Mike Tomlin on two-point conversions. Over the past five seasons they have converted 8 of their 10 two-point attempts. Last season they were 4 for 4.

Only 59 two-point conversions were attempted last season, with 28 being successful (47.5 percent). The Steelers were one of eight teams with perfect two-point conversion percentages. Seventeen teams failed to convert one two-point attempt.