Not A Sport -
"American Football"
As it stands today, "American Football" is not
considered a mans sport & never will be ... at least not worldwide.
The studs of world soccer are its scorers. The world loves its scorers ...
floppers as they might be ... the world identifies with its studs. What
the world sees in American Football is so absolutely foreign to them that it
makes them physically ill to watch NFL scoring and the insane coaching
decisions that squash any semblance of risk. "American
Football" is not a manly sport ... now deal with that! NFL fans ...
we all know the reality ... something about relations and cousins. It just
isn't right!
As a ravenous
fan of the NFL, if you were to say that football is the most popular sport in
the world, then you would be both right & wrong. The most popular
sport in the world is what American's call soccer but the rest of the world
calls football. Outside of this country, what we call football, they call
"American Football". Confusing ... Right!
In
the NFL, the scorers are our place kickers. You need to look no further
than yesterdays contest in Kansas City to understand what I'm talking
about. Look at who are the top scorers for all 32 NFL Teams. They
are place kickers.
From the worlds perspective, their argument might be as follows:
"Let me get this straight.
This kicker of yours gets to walk onto the field. He gets to have the ball
snapped to a guy 8-yards behind the line of scrimmage, where the other team must
stay until the ball is snapped, so that the kicker never gets touched, and he
has the same guy hold the ball for his kicks over and over again ... Then he
kicks a ball between these posts for 3-points about 25 to 40 yards away, without
a goalie in the way to try to block that kick ... and these guys are the scoring
studs for all 32-teams? Yes, unfortunately that is correct. When was the
last time this kicker of yours had to flop for a penalty kick?. Oh, our
kickers don't have to do that, in fact if you touch that kicker during his kick,
that's a penalty, where he gets to move it closer to the goal. What!
If he makes the kick, and he scores the points, does he have to run around the
field twice and then do 100 pushups or something? No! He just goes
back to the bench. What! These are your scoring studs? No our
scoring stud is Adrian Peterson ... man he's the sh#t! So he's your top
scorer? No, our kicker is. So let me get this straight, there is
another way to score ... but this guy Adrian Peterson is not your top
scorer? Yes, but we don't have to score that way. Oh! I get
it, Adrian Peterson is your only stud scorer right? No, we have a vast
array of scorers however using our teams studs to score is way too hard and way
to risky, although you do get to score twice as many (6) points. Let me
get this straight, it's harder to score with all these studs than it is to win a
1-nill soccer game. No, not really ... Instead it is easier to have our
kicker score 3 uncontested points. It's less risky for the coaches that
way. What! There's got to be another reason for this insanity
right? Well yes, but that involves sports betting which really doesn't
exist in America. Let me get this right ... and you love this sport?
Oh Yes! American absolutely love it."
"Maybe you might consider changing the place kicker scoring rules to make
the game allot more interesting. No, our commissioner and its owners have
instead decided to restrict and shackle the defense with so many new rules that
today in no way does the game resemble its past. So let me get this
straight. Instead of lowering an easy uncontested field goal to 1 or 2 points, you
instead essentially removed half of the teams (defense) from the field ...
Right? Brilliant Huh! Well that isn't exactly right but don't you find American football
exciting? Do you mean when they are standing around? No! After
the beer commercials. You're kidding me right? Well (In an arrogant American tone), you simply don't understand!"
This is the NFL owners plan to capture the imagination of the entire world of
sports ... a design created by masterminds. There is absolutely no ties
between the worlds imagination and NFL revenue. So how's that NFL Europe
working out!
Yesterday, the Vikings lost the game 22-17. Now let's consider what the
result would have been if the owners had decided to de-emphasize
the kicking game. Twice Kansas City broke into the red zone ...
Minnesota did it once. Two of those KC kicks & One Viking kick would
have been only worth a grand total of 2 & 1 points respectively. If
the 3 point range was moved to be beyond a 55 yard kick, every other field goal
in that game would be worth 2 points, which in my opinion is generous for the
effort. The result, if nothing else had changed would of resulted in a
15-15 overtime tie. Now that's exciting! If all the place kicks had
been worth 1 point each, then KC would have lost 15 to 12.
Now consider the following. If the new place kicking rules were in effect
yesterday, the 2 point conversion would probably become an absolute point of
emphasis for the risk takers. 2 points would become the norm within the
league, not the exception as it is today. Since the place kicking game is
now de-emphasized (worth less) as it should be, getting that additional point
during the conversion after touchdown looms large. A beast like Adrian
Peterson or Calvin Johnson becomes the point of emphasis ... not some one that
once said, "I tried to KEEK a Touchdown"!.
What absolutely blows the mind of absolutely everyone involved, including the
fans, is in regard to the decision making process. How many times would
the coach scrap the kicking game entirely to risk putting the ball back into the
hand of the football studs ... reaching for the big points ... reaching for the
brass ring. Today, this just cannot happen. To equate this, what the
NFL is doing today is similar to the principle of JUST-IN-TIME ... which is
always Just Late! Imagine a score of 50 to 3 (7 touchdowns, 4 two point
conversions versus 3-red-zone place kicks). It just wouldn't happen as any
coach worth his salt would rather be shut out rather than having to explain
3-red-zone kicks.
Since a new
place kicking rule affects the risk- reward so drastically, the scoring would
also change drastically. Some might think that the scoring would look like
soccer (2-nill victories). The rule change might result in drastically
higher scoring than it is today. We'll never know. What I can tell
you unequivocally is that yesterdays game would not have ended in a 15-15 tie
and the teams studs ... would be the scorers. A man's game.
The Viking Ghost
Writer
http://MyVikingBlood.org
Date: October 3, 2011
