NFL Commish Roger Goodell's Extra Point Proposal Is His Dumbest One Yet...

Really, Commish? REALLY?

We start with the premise that every commissioner of every sport feels like they need to put their stamp on the sport it is he oversees.

Despite their mission being to ensure the viability and profitability of the game, to serve the owners as a CEO would serve shareholders, commissioners want legacies. They want into their sport's Hall of Fame as badly as the players do.

Game managers generally don't become Hall of Famers. Taking over a machine that's spewing cash like a monetary geyser and watching it spew more cash through the continued inflation of TV rights is essentially "game managing" when it comes to being a commissioner.

So NFL commissioner Roger Goodell tinkers, and spitballs, and even makes dramatic change that, while insulating the owners from future concussion lawsuit damages, detrimentally effects the viewing experience.

And for a commissioner who has floated ideas like having Super Bowls in London and playing 18 game seasons, his thoughts on eliminating the kicked extra point are his dumbest ones yet.

And that's saying something.

Because his idea is, as Livia Soprano would say, a "big nothing."

First, just to lay out the story, the field goal style point after touchdown has essentially become a non-event. In the 2013 season, there were five missed extra points -- one each from Cincinnati, Chicago, Minnesota, Detroit and Jacksonville -- in 1,267 tries. The active kicker with the worst PAT conversion rate is Graham Gano, who has made 97.6 percent of his regular-season kicks since coming into the league four seasons ago.

Death, taxes, and extra points, basically.

Well, apparently, in addition to ensuring the owners continue to pocket billions of dollars (which is essentially the equivalent of making sure the trains run on time), Roger Goodell has made it his duty to ensure that every single play of every game have some sort of drama attached to it. No formalities!

To be clear, I don't even mind the spirit of what Goodell is trying to do. There's nothing wrong, I suppose, with adding increased drama to every play so long as it's done within reason or with logic. I'm not ultra offended by the PAT's existence, but if some people are, then revamp it.

However, Goodell's proposal to remedy the situation makes no sense: