Hello? Competition Committee?

If the NFL wants to add excitement to its many lackluster match ups (49ers @ Cardinals on MNF, anyone?), then they oughtta undo all these crapola changes they've made to make things "fair," and then change the most ridiculous play in the game: the PAT.

Let's get the easy stuff out of the way. During the last few years the No Fun League changed some rules that haven't done anything to make games more fair, as they were intended to, and have made the games less exciting.

For example, allowing offenses to wait out excessive fan noise is bullshit. Fan noise is part of home-field advantage, it's the 12th player and this is supposed to be the fans' game. Letting coaches call time out is garbage. It gives them too much control, just like the radio helmet communication system. The game is supposed to be played on the field and be spontaneous. Talk about killing drama.

Teams aren't allowed to place more than six cover guys on either side of the kicker during a kickoff. It might give them an unfair advantage during an onside kick. No shit, NFL, that's the point of the onside kick. In the old days (two years ago) the receiving team was free to put 10 guys to one side if that's how the opposition lined up. What's unfair about that?

On field goal tries, PATs and punts the defense isn't allowed to position a lineman head-up across from the center. The D player has to be offset to one side or the other, ostensibly to protect the center who is snapping with his head down. Bullshit. I was a long snapper and even in high school, centers are taught how to hit the holder (or punter) with the ball while keeping their heads up. You look back for the hand signal, then pick your head up so you can see the D (and not get your neck broken), and let it fly. With enough reps, it's pretty easy. Centers do the same thing in shotgun formation, yet this rule doesn't apply to that situation.

Head up or head down, the center is always the weak link in the special teams line. Let the D take advantage of that. The blocked punt or field goal is one of the great game-changing moments in any contest.

Now for the PAT. Worst play in football. The NFL added the 2-point conversion in 1994 to try to add some variability to the scoring and offset the fact that the PAT is virtually automatic. Guess what? It hasn't worked. Teams kick the PAT approximately 96% of the time. That's right from the NFL itself.

There are approximately 1100 - 1200 touchdowns scored in the NFL annually. The 2-point conversion is used 4% of the time. Using the higher number estimate, that means there are just 48 tries for 2 attempted each season. There are 32 teams in the league. That's 1.5 attempts per team, per year! Beyond that, the success rate is about 45% league-wide, that's just 23 conversions - far less than 1 per team, per year. I think it's fair to call this "test" an abject failure.

Why not leave the 2-point option in place and move the PAT to the 20 yard line? That would make it a 37 yard kick. While this distance for field goals is still converted more than 90% of the time, at least this isn't a 19-yard gimme. More missed PATs would also convince more teams to go for 2, which is what the league wanted in the first place. Hello? Competition Committee? Are you listening?