Kick or Defer?

[MD Longhorn]

Originally Posted by Robert Goodman

If they want to take out that choice, they can do so as the NFL did ~30 yrs. ago. ... in the pros within the past 25 yrs. I've seen the choice made to kick off taken, and that it proved to be the better choice.

I'm confused. The NFL removed the option to kick about 30 years ago, yet the choice to kick has been taken in "the pros" (what, USFL?) within the past 25 years? These can't both be true.

PS - I remember a pro team choosing to kick exactly once - ever. Detroit about 3 years ago. It failed, the other team scored, and they were crucified on ESPN and everywhere else.

[Robert Goodman]

Originally Posted by mbcrowder

I'm confused. The NFL removed the option to kick about 30 years ago, yet the choice to kick has been taken in "the pros" (what, USFL?) within the past 25 years? These can't both be true.

It was CFL.

And in these cases I meant the options after being scored on via TD or FG. NFL still has the options to start each half. What's interesting is that the NFL first took away the option to kick off after having a TD (and try attempt) scored against you, then a few years later made the scoring team's kickoff following a FG automatic too.

[Robert Goodman]

What's the real problem here? Apparently it's a misunderstanding that a team's captain or coach might have about how the choices are determined at each half -- as if the choice given to one team was not simply about the 1st half, but choosing the order of who would kick off for both halves in advance. This is something simple that doesn't even require practice -- that they can learn while sitting in a chair. When you present the choices, the clock isn't running, nobody's tired yet, they haven't taken shots in the head. If it's your job to straighten them out on that, then why wouldn't you confer with them about the consequences of 1 or 2 point tries when that comes up? Sure, it's something simple and you might prevent an error, but it's only one of a great many things like that in the game, and there doesn't seem to be any reason that you should be allowed, let alone expected, to give them advice on this one and not all those others, especially when this one is easier than the others.

[Altor]

Now that I've read the background, what would you do as WH in this sit?

WH: Visitors, you have won the toss.
Vis: We want to kick.
WH: You are deferring, then.
Vis: No, we want to kick.
WH: That means you're deferring.
Vis: Whatever.
WH: Home, you wish to receive?
Home: Since he wanted to kick and we hate him, we want to kick just out of spite!

[CT1]

Originally Posted by Robert Goodman

What's the real problem here?

The "problem", if you want to call it that, is that when a team's choice is to defer, they know that they're going to be kicking off to start the first half. Therefore, they sometimes use the shortcut "We'll kick" instead of "We'll defer."

It's certainly not what they mean.