Pete Carroll Gets It Right With PAT Suggestion

The annual NFL Owner’s and Coaches Meeting is a time for innovations, suggestions and open-mindedness. At least, until those traditionalists that hate change bury everyone’s ideas under a bunch of red tape and they’re never heard from until next year’s gathering.

Regardless, Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll has taken the true meaning of the yearly event to heart, suggesting a change to the Point After Touchdown scoring system that would finally make those fiddly point-blank field goals obsolete.

Carroll has proposed that a touchdown be worth an automatic seven points regardless of where or how it’s scored, with scoring teams then having the opportunity to score an eighth point by running another play from the 2-yard line.

As it stands, the opportunity for a two-point conversion is voluntary, and only exploited when necessary. Under this new system, all teams would need to run an additional play after the score in an attempt to gain an extra point that could have a serious bearing on the game’s winner.

Carroll’s proposal came with another wrinkle, too. Under this new rule, defenses would be able to score one point for their team if they can return a fumble or interception for a touchdown on the other end of the field.

The concept seems to draw from one of the few positive ideas of Vince McMahon’s failed XFL: the rule that there is no such thing as a ‘free point’, and that the opportunity for either team to score is present on every single play.

The mere thought of a game being decided on a one-point Marshawn Lynch crash-and-bash run or a 98-yard interception return care of J.J. Watt is enough to make even the most stoic NFL fan’s mouth water.

In light of a 98% PAT success rate in 2014, it’s high time the NFL brass does away with such gimmicks as narrower goalposts or 30-yard kick attempts, and instead makes a change for the better.