changing football<\/a>.\u201d\n <\/p>\n ![\"New](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/ap26025796656948.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n You see it in the comment section of NFL stories and on social media \u2013 fans grumbling that too many games are reduced to teams trading field goals back and forth. The action you imagine when you picture football is largely reduced to a precursor to a predictable kick. Stunted drives that barely make much headway downfield are sufficient to switch over to special teams.\n <\/p>\n
\n Sure, you could try to handicap the kickers in some capacity \u2013 narrowing the goalposts, for instance \u2013 but what if instead they upped the ante and incentivized kickers to attempt a higher risk, and higher reward feat. Like hitting the uprights.\n <\/p>\n
\n Here\u2019s the proposal CNN Sports gave to the kickers and special teams coaches at Super Bowl Opening Night: One more point for kicks that make contact. So that\u2019s four points for a field goal that hits the posts and instead of one extra point, two \u2013 if you can doink after a touchdown.\n <\/p>\n
\n That\u2019s it. That\u2019s the whole rule change. (Disclaimer: It is not under any serious consideration, unless someone from NFL HQ is reading this. In which case, you\u2019re welcome.)\n <\/p>\n
\n First of all, it\u2019s fun. But perhaps more importantly, it incentivizes aiming for the edges. The higher stakes of which would create more drama, more failure, and more excitement in the case of success.\n <\/p>\n
\n But would kickers and coaches actually ever actually attempt this?\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cTrying to hit the pole?\u201d said Springer. \u201cIt depends on your kicker. If your kicker is more of a big leg than an accuracy guy, you probably won\u2019t do it that often. But if your kicker is more of an accurate guy, I would say inside of the [Point After Touchdown], so 30 yards total.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n His guy, Borregales, is accurate. So Springer was excited about this possibility \u2013 in certain situations.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt depends on the game. It depends on the situation,\u201d he said. \u201cLike, what are the stakes in the football game? Is it a preseason game? Yeah, you probably go for four. Is it a Game One or Game Two of the season? Yeah, you probably go for the win.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cIs it to go to the playoffs? You go for the tie, go to overtime, if you feel like you got the momentum going with you. If you have no momentum, if you feel like this is the only chance to win the game, then you probably go for it. So it all depends on situations and how that game flowing.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Harbaugh, however, was more hesitant, in spite of his kicker\u2019s proven pinpoint potential.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cI would imagine that guys would get good enough at that that you could consider it,\u201d he said, \u201cbut I don\u2019t think, anytime in the near future, it would be consistent enough that it\u2019d be worth the risk of no points.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n He could imagine a scenario with the game on the line and a touchdown out of reach \u2014 fourth and long \u2014 when you\u2019d be forced to at least attempt it. But even as good as the kickers have gotten in recent years, \u201cto say that they could hit the upright on purpose repeatedly? That would be very difficult.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n The kickers themselves were wary of this suggestion.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt would just depend on the game and how it\u2019s flowing,\u201d Myers said, \u201cif you want to take the risk or not.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cI\u2019d probably still aim for the middle,\u201d Borregales said.\n <\/p>\n
\n For now, sure. But such a rule change would inspire training to adapt to meet the incentive structure. Teams would select for accuracy and work harder to hone it.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cIf you had it that way, you would probably want more accurate kickers more than big-leg kickers,\u201d Springer said. Increasingly, kickers are not kids who played soccer most of their lives but dedicated specialists who have trained for this role since elementary school.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cThe guy that could do that might be out there,\u201d Harbaugh conceded. \u201cIt\u2019d be pretty interesting.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Jose, California \u00a0\u2014\u00a0 Seattle Seahawks kicker Jason Myers holds the record for the most points scored in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":447957,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":["post-447956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}