Football

One thing I don’t like about football is that, sometimes, it’s over before it’s over. I mean, I don’t mind if, say, the home team is ahead by three points with one minute left on the clock and the opposing team is out of timeouts, because they’ll just kneel down, and the game will end very quickly. But the situation that bothers me is, for example, when the home team is ahead by 28 points, the opponent has three timeouts and controls the ball on their own 20-yard line, and there’s one minute left on the clock. Even if they score the touchdowns and get the onside kicks, there simply isn’t enough time to move the ball down the field four times. And yet, the game can continue for fifteen minutes or more, as the visitors try to score meaningless points.

My suggestion, which would not only prevent that, but it would also introduce a very high strategy component into the game, is the following: Currently, the line of scrimmage is the two-yard line when you try to kick an extra point. Well, what if you had the option of kicking for two extra points if the line of scrimmage was the four-yard line? And if the line of scrimmage is the six-yard line, you’re kicking for three extra points. And so on, until you set the line of scrimmage at your own two-yard line and try to kick for 49 extra points. Similarly, the line of scrimmage is the two-yard line for the two-point conversion. Well, what if you could get a four-point conversion from the line of scrimmage at the four-yard line? From the six-yard line, it’s a six-point conversion. And so on, so that if you set the line of scrimmage to your own two-yard line, you can try for a 98-point conversion.

Just imagine the possibilities. No matter how far you are behind, if you can score a touchdown, then you always have a chance, though it may be minuscule, of tying the game. And think about deciding what to do if you score the first touchdown of the game. This rule would revolutionize the game of football!

Statistics

I think it’s always questionable to keep track of individual statistics for any team sport. The players are supposed to put the team interests ahead of their own interests. But as it is, if a player puts his own interests first, he is likely to have better personal record at the expense of the team’s win-loss record. And even when a player’s actions help the team, he doesn’t always get enough credit. Here is an extreme example of what I’m talking about: Suppose a quarterback throws a 45-yard pass, and the wide receiver catches the ball, evades defenders, and moves another 45 yards down the field getting tackled at the 1-yard line. Then, on the following play, the ball is handed to the running back, who drops the ball, but the offensive linemen does such a great job that he picks up the ball and walks into the endzone. In this case, who gets the touchdown added to his personal records? The running back gets full credit. Neither the quarterback’s nor the wide receiver’s touchdown statistics record their contribution at all.

Clinch Bonus Points

Often, in the last weeks of the regular season, those teams that have already clinched their seeds in the playoffs will rest their starters. I can appreciate that it’s reasonable to give the advantage of rested players to a team that clinches early, but what about the fans who want to watch real legitimate football games? (It also causes problems in the Fantasy Football playoffs, because the best players, the ones that helped the top teams make it into the playoffs, might sit out the second half or even the whole game.) So here’s my idea. Add a rule that says: once a team has clinched a playoff spot (even if their specific seed is not determined yet), then the rest of their regular season games are “bonus games”. At the end of the regular season, each team totals the number of points they scored in their bonus games and subtracts the total number of points they gave up in those games. Then, they divide the result by 10 and round down to figure out how many bonus points that team has earned. (If the difference is less than 10, they don’t get any bonus points.) They will then begin their first playoff game with that many points.

For example, suppose that, in week 13, the Indianapolis Colts win their 10th game of the season, which guarantees them a spot in the playoffs. Then their last four games of the regular season are bonus games. Suppose they win in week 14 with a score of 20-13, they win week 15’s game, 48-21, they lose in week 16, 28-31, and they win their last regular season game, 24-21. Then the number of bonus points they have earned is:

FOOTBALL

Extra Extra Points

Statistics

Clinch Bonus Points