EXTRA POINTY

The extra point (A/K/A the point after, the PAT or the conversion) in football is two things – automatic and boring.

Over the last four seasons, NFL kickers made 99.5 percent of their extra point tries. It’s a play almost not worth watching, except for that extremely rare case where the snap, the hold or the kick goes awry.

The NFL moved to add more excitement for the 2015 on Tuesday by voting in new rules for the kicked extra point that should also encourage more teams to try for the two-point conversion.

For kicks, the ball will now be spotted at the 15-yard line, instead of the 2. That’s going to make these attempts the equivalent of a 32- or 33-yard field goal. A try for two points will still be spotted at the 2, but the defensive team can now return a fumble or an interception and get two points of its own if it can make it the 100 yards or so to the other end zone.

The NFL game didn’t lack for excitement, but these changes will bring to bear new strategies. Teams tried only 59 two-point conversions last season and succeeded on 28. More PATs will be missed now, forcing teams to try to make up that deficit with a two-point try. Kickers have become so accurate that the PAT had become an assumption.

The rule change is only for the coming season, so it can be revisited. Thirty of the 32 teams voted for it (Oakland and Washington were opposed).

It’s worth this one-year look. It will change the game for the better.
 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman .