NFL field goal question: long attempts

[TriPolar]

@Quercus

But ANY play could result in a bad snap, defense recovering and scoring a touchdown (I’ll grant that with a victory formation kneel-down the chance is very small). So, by that logic, an offense should never run any play at all, because something very bad COULD happen.
I think a better way to look at it is what are the chances that something very bad will happen? And I don’t think that FG attempts leading to defensive TDs happen very often. Certainly less than one out of 100 tries, right, even for long kicks where a return is possible? So if your kicker has just a 3% chance of making the FG, the math says you’re on average coming out ahead by going for the FG.

If you don’t need the points you can fall on the ball and run out the clock. You don’t risk letting the other team score if you don’t need the points. Otherwise you invoke the wrath of TriPolar.

[Marley23]

@Quercus

But ANY play could result in a bad snap, defense recovering and scoring a touchdown (I’ll grant that with a victory formation kneel-down the chance is very small). So, by that logic, an offense should never run any play at all, because something very bad COULD happen.

This is very silly. TriPolar was arguing against trying these plays at the end of the first half. They have minimal chance of success and he’s arguing that too much could go wrong. At the end of the game this wouldn’t be a consideration.

[lisiate]

@Implicit

Even in Canadian football, which doesn’t have the field position considerations (a missed field goal is like a punt), the record is 62 yards. It’s hard to kick a football further than 60 yards through a set of uprights.

Indeed, even in rugby, it’s rare to see a kick of more than 60 odd yards, and when taking a penalty the opposition has to stand still.

Oh and just to blow your minds here’s Francois Steyn kicking a 58 metre/63 yarddropkick.