Let's Put the 'Foot' Back in American Football

Time was when men were men, football players were football players (all your future points about the sport's misnomer are accepted and agreed to), and everybody played offense and defense. Now, specialization has taken the game to a point where kicking extra points is the domain of wispy, dweeby engineering majors who make the 10 yard kicks with the regularity of swiss time pieces. To the football watching public, this is now taken a signal to get up and visit the loo. Where is the drama?

I say the point should be kicked by the fellow who scores the touchdown. At a minimum, this will increase the drama under most circumstances, as receivers and running backs will struggle to make 70 percet of said kicks- enough uncertainty to make it interesting.

But the real fun occurs in those more rare instances when a great buffalo of a defensive lineman recovers a fumble and tsunamis his way 30 yards for a touchdown. Now, imagine that his team is down by one, and his team needs him to make that kick. He has not even attempted a kick since training camp, he is winded from what was for him a half-marathon, and the game rests upon his elephantine foot. Now there's drama.