The 1-Point, 3 Seconds of Yawn, Football Relic

Once upon a time, I hated Bill Belichick.

His lying arrogance, the spygate taping scandal, his mind-numbingly boring press conferences, the childish and classless non-handshakes after losses.

But I'm starting to actually like the dude.

Perhaps I've been softened up by the fact that he's just so damn good. He plays chess, while almost every other coach in the league is playing checkers. I think when he went for it on like his own 30 on 4th and a couple against Peyton Manning and the Colts - and lost - I really became a fan.

Of course that was the right call. And it almost worked. Yet many lunkhead armchair fans still ripped him for it.

You make that yardage, which they almost always do, and almost did anyway, and it's three knees and a victory shower. Right call. Screw the cowardly conventional wisdom of punt and hold and hope. In that one move, Belichick both flipped the finger to "conventional football wisdom" while simultaneously showing the utmost respect to an opposing QB.

Bravo.

Now, The Hoodie is speaking truth about something I've said for years: the extra point is worthless.

From Yahoo's Shutdown Corner Blog...

"Philosophically, plays that are non-plays shouldn't be in the game. I don't think it is good for the game. Extra points, when the odds are 99 percent range in extra points it is not a play. Let's move the ball back to the 15-20 yard line and not make it a tap in. Let them kick it. Same thing with the kickoff return, if you're just going to put the ball on the 20, put the ball on the 20."

Damn straight!

Extra points exist only to give snappers and holders nightmares. It's a 99.5% certainty. And a waste of time. And worse, yet, if you kick the XP, then any subsequent camera angle that shows a player was down, fumbled, or out of bounds negating the touchdown, is legally INADMISSIBLE because LA DEE DA, we just kicked the MAJESTIC EXTRA POINT, SO THAT'S LIKE THE FUCKING SUPREME COURT WEIGHING IN ON THIS PLAY! CASE CLOSED. CUT TO COMMERCIAL!

MJD on Shutdown Corner has it nailed. Touchdowns are worth 7. You want 8? Go for two, and if you fail you get 6. There's at least 8 minutes off the length of games right there.

Other sports have jettisoned things that were too cumbersome, or pointless, or time consuming, or unfair years ago. Figure skating nuked the "compulsories" where you had to slavishly trace perfect figure eights as part of your overall score. College basketball eliminated jump balls except to start the game. Baseball got rid of the... um... well.. okay, baseball never gets rid of anything. Except the bullpen car shaped like a helmet to ferry relievers into the game.

Time to get with it, NFL. Eliminate the boring plays - or "non-plays" as The Hoodie dubs them - and keep the exciting ones. It's not that hard.