The Sybian wrote:1.) 2 Pt conversions in a key situation can be exciting. I prefer moving PATs back to eliminating them altogether
2.) I could be persuaded. Maybe. Kickoff returns are exciting and can be game breaking. Having a great return man is a huge bonus for teams, and I like the idea of another position that can be a game changing weapon
3.) Field goals can be returned now. I think field goals are fine as is. Watching a kick can be exciting IMO. Again, having a great kicker is another position that can separate teams, so I like it. The loss of field position on missing a long field goal is enough of a risk for me.
4.) So are you saying if a team punts from the 50 and puts the ball in the end zone or out of bounds, the receiving team gets the ball at the 50? That is crazy talk. I actually like the art of pinning a team inside the 10, and don't understand why the coffin corner died out. My perception is that coffin corners had a higher success rate than trying to down the ball inside the 10. And I love watching a team try to get out from their own goal line.
You are more of an afficianodo of the current game than I am. The current form is not sacred.
In the '50s and '60s punting and especially kicking wasn't that important. Teams often employed regular players rather than specialists to do these things. For example, the Lions had Doak Walker and Bobby Layne kicking in the 50s, Wayne Walker (pro bowl LB ) in the 60s, and Lem Barney punted in the 70s (as I recall). The Packers had Jerry Kramer kicking in the early '60s.
The game was more like the one we played in empty lots. We tried to score touchdowns. We didn't kick field goals and have extra-points.
Kicking and punting are intrinsically boring, because they aren't 'like' the rest of the game of football. If you offered a game that was exclusively kicking and punting, no one would attend. Why allow so much of football to be taken up by an activity that, standing alone, would have no more appeal than field hockey? Why allow so many games to be decided by a kicker, who is so unlike the rest of the players in what he does? I'm with Alex Karras on this one. "Keeking touchdowns" does nothing for me.