Not a lot can hurt the shield, but I truly think the NFL would risk screwing with the justness of results if it were to move extra points back from the 2-yard line to the 25-yard line, which according to NFL.com's Judy Battista is being discussed,
That's probably a longshot, and at least a long way off, but Battista reports that it's something the league could experiment with in the preseason.
Hopefully, that'll cause the competition committee to realize that such a change could have ugly results.
Right now, the "problem" is that extra points are automatic. A ridiculous 99.6 percent were made with the ball snapped from the 2-yard line last season, and thus there's no element of impact or suspense regarding the point that comes after every touchdown.
The solution, though, isn't to make extra points less automatic. It should be to eliminate a meaningless play entirely from the game.
The idea that you give touchdown scorers seven points with the choice of risking the seventh point in order to gamble for an eighth point with a "two-point conversion" is sound. It basically maintains the current system while shortening games by getting rid of a play that almost always produces the same result.
But if you start making kickers attempt from 43 yards in order to secure that seventh point, you're making a fundamental change to the game. Think of how often teams will win or lose on extra points. That's not ideal. That's not fun. Touchdowns and field goals should decide games, not extra points.
Only 83 percent of 40-49-yard field goals were successful last season. A policy that has more than one out of every 10 extra points being missed is ludicrous.
The NFL has cited a reduction in injuries (however small) as another reason to get rid of extra points, but this would also have the opposite effect.
It just doesn't make sense.
