Josh Brown, the New York Giants placekicker now in his 13th year in the NFL, said he understood why the league moved the extra-point attempt this season so that the kick was 33 yards from the goal posts instead of 20 yards.
"Because the old extra-point kick was like a basketball layup with no one guarding you," Brown said. "Who's going to watch that? That's when everyone got up and went to the bathroom."
Since 2000, the success rate of extra-point attempts from the 2-yard line had been 99 percent every season except one, when it was 98 percent.
After three weeks this season, NFL kickers have already missed 13 extra-point attempts, which is five more than were missed in the 17-week schedule last year.
"And the misses are only going to continue," said Brown, who has made 392 of 394 extra-point attempts in his career entering today's game with the Buffalo Bills. "Wait until the weather gets bad."
It may not seem highly consequential that kickers are converting only 94.6 percent of extra-point tries from the 15-yard line, and no game has been lost on a failed kick, but it has still influenced outcomes. The prospect of a failed kick has also changed the decisions and preparations of NFL coaches.
But mostly it has transformed what was a boring, automatic play into something more deliberative and variable.
"This is exactly what the league was hoping for -- to change a ceremonial play into a competitive play," said John Mara, the Giants co-owner who is on the NFL's competition committee, which recommended the rule change. "We didn't want a guaranteed thing, and we figured that more teams would then go for two. So the rule change is achieving what it was intended to do."
Mara added, laughing, "I say that until we miss an extra point that costs us."
Not everyone is happy. After he had an extra point blocked during the opening week of season, Cincinnati Bengals kicker Mike Nugent criticized the new rule.
"It's a rule that was changed to make players fail more, which I just don't get," Nugent told The Cincinnati Enquirer. "This is an offensive-driven league. Everyone wants to see points. To change a rule to make less points, it just confuses me. And I completely disagree with it."
Foxy boxing?
Oakland Raiders Coach Jack Del Rio worked in both Carolina and Denver for head coach John Fox, who is now in charge of the woeful Bears. Those two teams play today in Chicago.
"I wish it could be him and I wrestling on the 50, but that's not going to come down," Del Rio said. "I think 'Foxy' might still take me, he's a pretty tough guy."
Recruiting tool
An upcoming book apparently alleges that a former director of basketball operations at the University of Louisville paid an escort service to provide sex for Cardinals recruits.
"In related news," wrote Janice Hough of leftcoastsportsbabe.com, "inquiries from prospective players to Louisville have skyrocketed."
Quiz
Name the active player with the most career extra points made.
Answer
Adam Vinatieri with 716.
Sports on 10/04/2015