The Official Forum  

Go Back   The Official Forum > Football
Register FAQ Community Calendar Today's Posts Search

Reply
 
LinkBack Thread Tools Rate Thread Display Modes
  #16 (permalink)  
Old Thu Jan 23, 2014, 02:01pm
Official Forum Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Posts: 2,918
Quote:
Originally Posted by Altor View Post
The Europeans already joke about how American footballs aren't shaped like a ball and rarely get touched by a foot. I've heard the phrase "hand-egg" from more than one person. I can only imagine what they will say when the NFL does away with kickoffs and tries.
Telephones and radios still have dials, and telephones are still dialed. I haven't seen basketball players called "cagers" in a while, though, so maybe that one's finally passe -- and how often was basketball ever played in a cage, anyway? (Or was the basket itself the cage, and they were trying to cage the ball?)
Reply With Quote
  #17 (permalink)  
Old Thu Jan 23, 2014, 02:15pm
Official Forum Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Posts: 2,918
Quote:
Originally Posted by Adam View Post
A solution in search of a problem.
See, you're thinking of only addressing problems. If there were really a problem with football, the solution would be simple: Don't play it.

Football is discretionary, so it's not a matter of remedies, but one of what can be done to make it more attractive. To look closest to the question at hand, when the 2-pt. conversion was introduced, it was not to address a problem. Or to look at other examples from football, when NCAA abolished the free kick from a fair catch, it was not to address a problem, nor was it doing so the year previous to that, when they abolished the fair catch entirely (nor was the CRU when they did similarly). Yes, frequently rule changes are made or considered to address drawbacks in safety or in ease of administration, or to redress a change in balance that was introduced by some other rule change or a change in play techniques. But the rest of the time it's that they think people will like it better a certain way.
Reply With Quote
  #18 (permalink)  
Old Sat Jan 25, 2014, 03:02pm
Official Forum Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Posts: 2,918
I've also pointed out here that often rule changes have been sold on the basis of safety, when in reality safety was at best a secondary motiv'n. If they wanted to they could say abolishing the try improves safety by abolishing that many downs in the game!

If you think that's silly, remember the chief tool the NCAA wielded for making football "safer": shortening the season in length & number of games. At the time the NCAA was organized, there were some in it who hoped to taper off football to at most a single annual ceremonial game per pair of institutions within a few years.

Last edited by Robert Goodman; Sat Jan 25, 2014 at 03:11pm.
Reply With Quote
  #19 (permalink)  
Old Sat Jan 25, 2014, 06:59pm
Archaic Power Monger
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Houston, TX
Posts: 5,983
Quote:
Originally Posted by Altor View Post
The Europeans already joke about how American footballs aren't shaped like a ball and rarely get touched by a foot. I've heard the phrase "hand-egg" from more than one person. I can only imagine what they will say when the NFL does away with kickoffs and tries.
These would be people ignorant of the etymology of the name of their own game.

They probably also don't realize that the English are responsible for the name soccer.

Regarding the elimination of the try, I guess I'm ambivalent. It's far from a foregone conclusion at any level as far as I'm concerned however Aggie has a point I'm. The kicking game's days appear to be numbered with all of the new kicking rules being implemented to make the game safer.
__________________
Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there. - Will Rogers
Reply With Quote
  #20 (permalink)  
Old Mon Jan 27, 2014, 10:29am
Official Forum Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Katy, Texas
Posts: 8,033
Hey grandson... back in the day they used to have these posts on each end of the field, and if you could kick it between them it was worth 3 points. No, really, I promise. And even more kechny (the slang used in 2035), after a T-Down you only got 6 points and had to kick it through these posts to get the 7th point. No, I'm not filching you - honest truth!

If you can get your head around that, it's even weirder. They used to have people on the field in striped shirts deciding where the play ended and whether someone was cheating or not. And I was one of them.
__________________
I was thinking of the immortal words of Socrates, who said, 'I drank what?'”

West Houston Mike
Reply With Quote
  #21 (permalink)  
Old Mon Jan 27, 2014, 11:00am
Archaic Power Monger
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Houston, TX
Posts: 5,983
"So when were you replaced by robots, grandpa?"
__________________
Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there. - Will Rogers
Reply With Quote
  #22 (permalink)  
Old Mon Jan 27, 2014, 11:57am
Official Forum Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Katy, Texas
Posts: 8,033
Quote:
Originally Posted by Welpe View Post
"So when were you replaced by robots, grandpa?"
Back in about 2020, they began gradually replacing the on-field officials with electronics. Sensors in the ball and gloves and pads and electronics under the field and the many cameras allow us to know precisely where forward progress was stopped on a play or where the ball was when out of bounds was touched, as well as whether a ball was caught near a sideline. That also tells us whether a ball crossed a goal line before their knees were down. Heck, they didn't even used to require gloves - most players played barehanded - and not just the QB like today!

We even used to have guys holding sticks to tell you whether 10 yards was made. They would start each series basically guessing where the series started, yet despite the inaccuracy of the starting point, they would get down on their hands and knees to measure the ending point sometimes.

Crazy stuff, lad.
__________________
I was thinking of the immortal words of Socrates, who said, 'I drank what?'”

West Houston Mike
Reply With Quote
  #23 (permalink)  
Old Mon Jan 27, 2014, 12:38pm
Broadcaster
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: LaGrange, Ga.
Posts: 364
Quote:
Originally Posted by MD Longhorn View Post
Back in about 2020, they began gradually replacing the on-field officials with electronics. Sensors in the ball and gloves and pads and electronics under the field and the many cameras allow us to know precisely where forward progress was stopped on a play or where the ball was when out of bounds was touched, as well as whether a ball was caught near a sideline. That also tells us whether a ball crossed a goal line before their knees were down. Heck, they didn't even used to require gloves - most players played barehanded - and not just the QB like today!

We even used to have guys holding sticks to tell you whether 10 yards was made. They would start each series basically guessing where the series started, yet despite the inaccuracy of the starting point, they would get down on their hands and knees to measure the ending point sometimes.

Crazy stuff, lad.
"Grandpa, tell me 'bout the good old days..." ♪ ♬
Reply With Quote
  #24 (permalink)  
Old Mon Jan 27, 2014, 12:41pm
Official Forum Member
 
Join Date: Aug 1999
Posts: 18,198
Quote:
Originally Posted by Welpe View Post
"So when were you replaced by robots, grandpa?"
"your grandma replaced me with a robot about three years after we were married.

Oh -- you mean in officiating."
Reply With Quote
  #25 (permalink)  
Old Thu Jan 30, 2014, 10:13am
Official Forum Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2006
Posts: 1,262
Quote:
Originally Posted by Altor View Post
The Europeans already joke about how American footballs aren't shaped like a ball and rarely get touched by a foot. I've heard the phrase "hand-egg" from more than one person. I can only imagine what they will say when the NFL does away with kickoffs and tries.
I've normally seen "egg-chasers" used to refer to rugby players whose ball is decidedly more egg-shaped than a football.
Reply With Quote
  #26 (permalink)  
Old Sat Feb 08, 2014, 06:26pm
Official Forum Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Posts: 220
Quote:
Originally Posted by Robert Goodman View Post
Why should a major score confer an opp'ty for an add'l minor score of any kind, by any means?
It's actually a nice scoring mechanism if the minor score is difficult enough and if it is a meaningful amount of the major score. It allows for some variation in strategies to get more points than your opponent. By setting the point values where they are, a touchdown is worth two field goals, BUT it can still be worth more than that, making it the true goal of the game, while making it hard to achieve at lower levels. I
Reply With Quote
  #27 (permalink)  
Old Sun Feb 09, 2014, 09:24pm
Official Forum Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Posts: 2,918
Quote:
Originally Posted by jchamp View Post
It's actually a nice scoring mechanism if the minor score is difficult enough and if it is a meaningful amount of the major score. It allows for some variation in strategies to get more points than your opponent.
If it's a nice scoring mechanism, why don't we see anything like it in games that aren't on the same model? Rugby doesn't count, same tradition; speedball doesn't count because deliberately modeled on same.

Tenpin bowling? Not really, because the add'l score isn't a minor one, and can actually equal or exceed the original score. Besides, bowling has a good reason for it: Once you knock down many pins with the 1st ball, you have fewer targets left, so the add'l score is to compensate and hence reward success.

It would be very easy to imagine extra point opp'ties arranged in other sports. In soccer, you score a goal, you're awarded a penalty kick worth 0.1 or 0.2 or 0.5 goal, for instance. The fact that we haven't seen such developments says there's something wrong with the concept, and that it is just a legacy where it does exist.
Reply With Quote
  #28 (permalink)  
Old Wed Feb 12, 2014, 01:04pm
Official Forum Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Posts: 105
Let the extra point be automatic (7 points) unless the team wants to try for two (8 if it's good, 6 if they miss).
Reply With Quote
  #29 (permalink)  
Old Wed Feb 12, 2014, 01:56pm
Official Forum Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Posts: 2,918
Quote:
Originally Posted by bsaucer View Post
Let the extra point be automatic (7 points) unless the team wants to try for two (8 if it's good, 6 if they miss).
Why stop there? Why not let them try for double or nothing on the whole touchdown? And how about a similar feature for every score in hockey and fencing?
Reply With Quote
Reply

Bookmarks


Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is On
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Got these for this upcoming year. Jarm Basketball 49 Mon Jul 30, 2012 03:58pm
Upcoming NCAA Rule Changes...... grunewar Football 2 Fri Apr 16, 2010 07:51pm
Upcoming Clinic Invitation SAump Baseball 22 Mon Jan 29, 2007 10:35pm
tips for an upcoming catcher? greensabre91 Baseball 15 Sat Oct 15, 2005 11:42am
Upcoming So. CA Umpire Clinics dani Baseball 0 Tue Sep 16, 2003 10:42am


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 08:51am.



Search Engine Friendly URLs by vBSEO 3.3.0 RC1