Belichick: extra points should be more difficult

Patriots head coach Bill Belichick was not too thrilled when the NFL decided to move kickoffs up to the 35-yard line a couple years ago. Belichick said that kickoffs are sometimes the "most exciting plays in football" and that reducing the amount of returns is not good for the game. Just recently, the legendary coach was asked about the importance of special teams in the playoffs. Belichick went real in depth about his opinion of not only kickoffs but extra points as well:

“I personally would love to see the kicking game remain as a very integral part of the game so that the kickoffs are returned and so that extra points are not over 99 percent converted because that’s not what extra points were when they were initially put into the game back 80 years ago, whatever it was,” Belichick said.

Though Belichick cited kickoffs as potentially the most exciting plays in football, he now labeled extra point kicks as some of the least exciting plays. He gave the credit for that to its high conversion rate:

“I would be in favor of not seeing it be an over 99 percent conversion rate,” Belichick said. “It’s virtually automatic. That’s just not the way the extra point was put into the game. It was an extra point that you actually had to execute and it was executed by players who were not specialists, they were position players. It was a lot harder for them to do. The Gino Cappellettis of the world and so forth and they were very good. It’s not like it is now where it’s well over 99 percent. I don’t think that’s really a very exciting play because it’s so automatic.”

The Pats' head coach had plenty of credibility here. Back in the day, there were not many set place-kickers and it was players like Gino Cappelleti who made names for themselves with their expanded skills in various areas including kicking. This past season, kickers were 1,256-for-1,261 on extra point kicks, a 99.6% success rate. These plays really do not serve much more than a chance for fans to get up and get a drink or snack while not missing much action. With that being said, not many people besides Belichick have made a public opposition to the current setup. Will the NFL make a change in the kicking/special teams game? Nothing is certain yet, but you can bet that Bill Belichick will be behind the new ideas.

Anthony Aidonidis
@aidonidis18