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Roger Goodell Wants To Make NFL More Exciting

Find out how Roger Goodell plans on changing the NFL brand.

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With the 2014 campaign in the books, the attention has immediately shifted to the off-season. While teams prepare for the NFL Draft and free-agency, commissioner Roger Goodell will attempt to figure out ways to improve the quality of the NFL brand.

During his Super Bowl press conference last week, Goodell touched on areas he wants to improve in.

“Looking to the offseason, we will focus on innovation and technology in three key areas: the game, player safety and the fan experience,” said Goodell.

Goodell went on to display the league’s steady improvement in player safety.

“We are doing more to protect our players from unnecessary risk,” Goodell explained. “Hits to defenseless players this season were down 68 percent, and there were similar decreases in other areas pertaining to the safety of the game. We reported yesterday that concussions were down 25 percent this past regular season, continuing a three-year trend.”

Despite those impressive player safety numbers, Goodell still endures a lot of criticism. Goodell’s been known to give out hefty fines and suspensions, which is probably why player safety has improved because guys are fearful of facing major consequences.

It’s no secret that football is America’s most popular sport and that will probably not change anytime soon, so why fix what isn’t broke?

Well, Goodell believes there’s ways to make the game even more appealing. One of those ways is to make the extra point play more exciting. During the first two weeks of preseason, the league experimented with the play by moving the kick back to the 15-yard line, which resulted in two misses. Your normal extra point is 20 yards, but the experiment made it a 33-yard kick.

While moving the kick back 13 yards may not be the solution, Goodell realizes he must come up with something.

“There is more work to do on other fronts,” the NFL Commissioner added. “While the quality of the game continues to improve, fans want every play to have suspense, but the extra point has become virtually automatic. We have experimented with alternatives to make it a more competitive play, and we expect to advance these ideas through the Competition Committee this offseason.

New York Giants head coach Tom Coughlin would put the ball at the one yard line instead of the two.

I didn’t think much of it when it was suggested, Coughlin said. “There are some ways to change that part of it if the intent is to make it more exciting. I think that certainly would be one of them. I think you have to be aware of the fact that it’s a 33-yard field goal in November when the wind’s blowing and it’s snowing here and it’s… in Miami it’s 75 degrees. It’s a little different in different parts of the country. You do have to be aware of that. I would say probably the ball will stay at the two, extra points. But if you really want to make it interesting put it at the one.”

Coughlin may be on to something here. Moving the extra point to the one yard line would create a lot more two point conversion attempts, as coaches would feel more confident in their running back getting into the end zone.

In addition to changing the dynamics of in-game action, Goodell wants to maximize the use of technology.

“We are looking at expanding the use of technology and innovation for our football and medical staffs as well as our fans,” Goodell said. “Last year, technology improved officiating. For the first time, it enabled us to directly involve officiating supervisors in our office in instant replay and for officials to use wireless communications on the field. Replay and other officiating decisions took less time. That’s important. Fans don’t want delays, coaches don’t want delays – they want action and accuracy.”

It doesn’t end there.

“We are looking at other ways to enhance replay and officiating,” Goodell added. “That includes potentially expanding replay to penalites if it can be done without more disruption to the pace of the game. And we are discussing rotating members of the officiating crews during the season as a way to improve consistency throughout our regular season and benefit our crews in the postseason. In officiating, consistency is our number-one objective.”

Goodell is even thinking about changing up the postseason.

“The possibility of expanding the playoffs has also been a topic over the last couple of years,” the Commissioner explained. “There are positives to it, but there are concerns as well. Among them being the risk of diluting our regular season and conflicting with college football in January.”

With all of these potential rule changes in the balance, we could be in for an off-season that will change the landscape of the NFL forever.

 

Mark Gunnels is an NFL columnist for Football Insiders. He has several years of experience covering the NFL and NCAA football. He's the radio color commentator for Lincoln University football. Mark's work has been featured on Sports Illustrated, Fox Sports and Yard Barker.

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