Should the NFl Make the goal post narrower

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Interesting piece at another Non-PC site Vdare.com. Thought it might make for an interesting discussion.

[h=1]Time To Narrow The NFL Goal Posts[/h]
By Steve Sailer on November 6, 2011
From Crossing Wall Street on November 2:

We’re nearly halfway through the [NFL] season and kickers have made a stunning 85.9% of their field goal attempts. In just ten years, kickers have increased their accuracy by nearly 10%.
Not only that, but they’re kicking longer as well. So far this season, kickers have made 78% of their attempts between 40 and 49 yards. That’s better than the NBA’s league-wide accuracy from the free throw line (76.3%).
And the numbers from attempts over 50 yards out are even more impressive. This season, kickers have nailed 45 of their 63 attempts from 50 yards or more. That’s more accurate than the league was from any distance 25 years ago. Since 1994, long-range accuracy has doubled and long-range attempts-per-game are up by more than 63% from just five years ago.
Improved kicking is rapidly changing football strategy. In fact, this season is on track to be the highest-scoring season since the AFL-NFL merger, and kickers deserve a lot of the credit. Touchdowns-per-game are nearly identical to where they were 30 years ago, but field goals-per-game are up by 45%.
This high-octane accuracy is completely new to football. In 1974, the first year when the uprights were placed at the back of the end zone, kickers made just four of 30 field goals from 50 or more yards. Jan Stenerud, the only pure placekicker in the Hall of Fame, made 66.8% of his career field goal attempts. Today that’s good enough for 105th place in career accuracy. Nearly every player in the top 30 for career accuracy is currently active.
It’s not just field goals, either. NFL kickers have only missed two of their 546 extra-point attempts this year. That’s a success rate of 99.63% which would also be a league record. Think about this: There will probably be one-tenth as many missed extra-points this year as there were 25 years ago.
The NYT has a similar article today.

I have a basic rule of thumb that human beings find more interesting things that are closer to a 50-50 proposition. Field goal kicking in the NFL, however, has become more of a sure thing, which means that less credit is given to kickers for making a field goal than blame is given to them for missing. Call it the extra pointification of the field goal. The point-after-touchdown kick is a vestigial ritual that just makes games longer. Nobody ever is the hero for kicking the PAT that wins the game 28-27.
One reason for the improvement is that NFL teams have perfected teamwork on the snap: they often have a deepsnaping specialist and the the punter is delegated to be the holder. Since these three guys don't have much else to do, they get really good at working together. Another reason is the spread of specialty camps training young kickers and snappers. This year, the first ever Sailer Award[No relation.]will be given to the country's top high school kicker.
Coaches are finally attempting more field goals from 50 yards or longer, and kickers are making 71% of them. This has given placekickers a moment to shine this year, but soon it will be considered routine to make 55 yard field goals, and kickers will remain uncelebrated.
As Eddy Elfenbein of Crossing Wall Street says, what the NFL should do to make field goal kicking less of a sure thing is to narrow the goal posts to make field goals more of an accomplishment. The NFL's goal should be for placekickers to be talked about as heroes rather than as screw-ups.

Ironically, placekickers might object because then they'd miss more PATs, and they would worry that they'd get fired more for missing PATs. But why not just eliminate the PAT and make the NFL touchdown worth 7 points? If you went for a 2-point conversion and failed, you'd have a point deducted. NFL games are ridiculously long as it is. The PAT mostly exists today for the sake of additional TV advertising opportunities.


 

jaxvid

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Intresting article. The league messes around with kicking all of the time. I think good FG accuracy is better for the game as a team should be rewarded for getting into FG range. One thing I would add is that the article mentions kicking stats from 25 years ago, there are a lot more indoor stadiums now and that makes a huge difference in kicking. The Detroit Lions have had only two kickers for the last 30 years. They have also played in domed stadiums all of that time.
 
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I actually think kicking should be more a part of the game than it is. They should be able to kick FGs with tees and have the old college width field goals. The game is FOOTball afterall. Maybe the PAT attempt should be a little farther out, like the 15 yard line instead of the 3.

What isn't discussed in the article is that if the athletes in the NFL are faster and more explosive than ever, why aren't teams blocking more kicks, especially with an 11 on 9 advantage on the line?
 
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I was really wondering if anyone would view this as a Caste type of thing. If there is a non-white place kicker in the NFL I do not know who it is. With this kind of success kicking field goals
a coach playing the per centages would probably start kicking a lot more often when past the 50 yard line instead of punting. This does two things I feel will rile the Caste types. First a White athlete becomes much more valuable and much better known for kicking FG's and secondly if a teams goes for three instead of punting it means a a punt returner who will usually be a black athelete will not get to run back the now not occurring punt.
 

white is right

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Field goal kickers are so much better than they were in the 70's through early 80's. Accuracy is near perfect on short kicks and on long kicks the kickers are at a percentage they were for mid range kicks. By changing the rules on long kicks around 10 years ago they destroyed long attempts accept for end of the half kicks and end of the game kicks. The power of the field goal has been blunted enough.
 
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I had always wondered why the the NFL wanted to discourage FG kicking by spotting an unsuccessful attempt at the point of the kick instead of the line of scrimmage or penalizing an unsuccessful kicking attempt for -7 yards. The Eagles have a place kicker David Akers capable of success inside the the 50 yard line of over 90%. Now if I were a Philly fan and they trotted Mr. Akers put every time there was a long and 4 or in some cases even a long and 3rd down situation and he put three points on the board I could see him becoming a very big man in the City of Brotherly love. In fact I could see kickers becoming the most sought after offensive player on many teams. and since kicker are almost universally white the CASTE system cannot allow this to happen. I am sure there will be more rule changes to cut down on the number of successful Field Goals.
 
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In fact I could see kickers becoming the most sought after offensive player on many teams. and since kicker are almost universally white the CASTE system cannot allow this to happen

The problem with this is that there is a lot of parity in the kicker position. The NFL flat-out has no need for more than 32 kickers at any one time, and while some are certainly better than others, there are guys on the street right now who can kick better than the best guys from 20 years ago.

As for the caste implications... we could have 200 teams in the league and there'd be at least 198 white kickers. Blacks are not as good at kicking, not interested in kicking, and generally don't have the kind of personality to get good at kicking.
 
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"As for the caste implications... we could have 200 teams in the league and there'd be at least 198 white kickers. Blacks are not as good at kicking, not interested in kicking, and generally don't have the kind of personality to get good at kicking."

My point exactly
 
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Akers is now a San Francisco 49er, ToW.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/players/4587

John

I checked a web site that had a break down of FG Kicking Statistics. I assume he played in Philly last year. I seldom watch any games that do not involve the Patriots ( Wes Welker), Green Bay (Jordy Nelson) or Cleveland ( Peyton Hillis. I guess since Hillis is bench due to injury I will not be watch Cleveland until he comes back if ever.
 
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