# The NFL has moved the extra point try back to the 15. Opinions? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [September 13, 2015, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-nfl-has-moved-the-extra-point-try-back-to-the-15-opinions/731009 "2015-09-13T01:15:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2015, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-nfl-has-moved-the-extra-point-try-back-to-the-15-opinions/731009/61 "2015-11-24T09:36:35Z")
I was taught that a touchdown is seven points since I was a kid. So the extra point has been considered automatic for at least two decades. I don’t see the point in going from 99% to 94%. There’s still no tension, as it almost certainly isn’t going to fail, and, if it does, it probably will have no effect on the game. But, hey, if some people like it better, more power to them. I only watch the Super Bowl, anyways. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2015, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-nfl-has-moved-the-extra-point-try-back-to-the-15-opinions/731009/62 "2015-11-24T14:48:09Z")
Since the change, I’m less inclined to start my bathroom break early, before the extra point. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2015, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-nfl-has-moved-the-extra-point-try-back-to-the-15-opinions/731009/63 "2015-11-24T14:57:56Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > I don’t see the point in going from 99% to 94%. There’s still no tension, as it almost certainly isn’t going to fail, and, if it does, it probably will have no effect on the game. 99 of 100 is “almost certainly.” 19 out of 20 is not, and it certainly has an impact on a tied game. I think the rule change has - for once - been an unqualified success. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2015, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-nfl-has-moved-the-extra-point-try-back-to-the-15-opinions/731009/64 "2015-11-24T15:27:48Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > 99 of 100 is “almost certainly.” 19 out of 20 is not, and it certainly has an impact on a tied game. In D&D terms, it’s the difference between only failing on a roll of “01” on a d100 (when XPs were at 99+%), versus only failing on a roll of “1” on a d20. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2015, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-nfl-has-moved-the-extra-point-try-back-to-the-15-opinions/731009/65 "2015-11-24T16:18:49Z")
Or, to look at it another way, something that succeeds 94% of the time has 6x (600%) the failure rate of something that succeeds 99% of the time. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2015, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-nfl-has-moved-the-extra-point-try-back-to-the-15-opinions/731009/66 "2015-11-24T19:46:56Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > Or, to look at it another way, something that succeeds 94% of the time has 6x (600%) the failure rate of something that succeeds 99% of the time. You would be off by a factor of more that four, > [@Raygun99](#): > > Over the last four years, kickers have made 99.8% of PATs (not an exaggeration, I looked it up)… the real number is more like 28x. ---
**Author:** ![Raygun99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Raygun99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raygun99)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2015, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-nfl-has-moved-the-extra-point-try-back-to-the-15-opinions/731009/67 "2015-11-24T19:53:47Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > You would be off by a factor of more that four, > > the real number is more like 28x. If you look further down, I clarified that I had made a math error. The make % was 99.3, not 99.8. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2015, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-nfl-has-moved-the-extra-point-try-back-to-the-15-opinions/731009/68 "2015-11-24T22:05:22Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > You would be off by a factor of more that four, > > the real number is more like 28x. You’re right, I was using his (rounded) numbers. I was saying that people tend to look at a difference between, say, 98% and 99.99% as being negligible, but it depends on the context, since 1.99% seems insignificant, but 200x the failure rate does not. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2015, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-nfl-has-moved-the-extra-point-try-back-to-the-15-opinions/731009/69 "2015-12-07T03:35:03Z")
Well, here we go, [Saints block a Panthers extra-point, pick up the ball, and run it all the way back to score two points](http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000595583/article/saints-record-first-twopoint-blocked-extra-point-return). Cool. I am guessing the NFL will be liking this kind of thing. ---
**Author:** ![Laggard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de053/32.png) [@Laggard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laggard)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2015, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-nfl-has-moved-the-extra-point-try-back-to-the-15-opinions/731009/70 "2015-12-07T18:33:44Z")
Nine were missed yesterday. This is one of the better rule changes we’ve had in a while. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2015, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-nfl-has-moved-the-extra-point-try-back-to-the-15-opinions/731009/71 "2015-12-07T18:35:55Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > Well, here we go, [Saints block a Panthers extra-point, pick up the ball, and run it all the way back to score two points](http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000595583/article/saints-record-first-twopoint-blocked-extra-point-return). Cool. I am guessing the NFL will be liking this kind of thing. And, of course, that three point swing wound up being the margin of victory. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2015, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-nfl-has-moved-the-extra-point-try-back-to-the-15-opinions/731009/72 "2015-12-07T18:53:07Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > And, of course, that three point swing wound up being the margin of victory. Not sure what you’re saying - the Panthers won by 3, not the Saints. If the kick had been good, and the rest of the game had been the same, the Panthers would still have won, by 6. So it was an interesting but ultimately meaningless play. ---
**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2015, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-nfl-has-moved-the-extra-point-try-back-to-the-15-opinions/731009/73 "2015-12-07T19:01:14Z")
> [@Laggard](#): > > Nine were missed yesterday. This is one of the better rule changes we’ve had in a while. Why is this better? ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2015, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-nfl-has-moved-the-extra-point-try-back-to-the-15-opinions/731009/74 "2015-12-07T19:03:02Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > Not sure what you’re saying - the Panthers won by 3, not the Saints. If the kick had been good, and the rest of the game had been the same, the Panthers would still have won, by 6. So it was an interesting but ultimately meaningless play. Whoops. I misremembered who did what and didn’t look closely at that post, and thought it was the Panthers who had returned the kick. > [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](#): > > Why is this better? Because it makes part of the game meaningful when it had previously atrophied to irrelevance. Or, depending on how you are asking the question, because the rule change actually does what the NFL wanted it to do. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2016, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-nfl-has-moved-the-extra-point-try-back-to-the-15-opinions/731009/75 "2016-01-05T12:16:27Z")
I understand why they did it, but it rubs me the wrong way. If the rationale is that it’s pretty much automatic, then just make it automatic. I always thought an extra point was a dumb concept anyway. I notice that life is starting to resemble 90s All Sport commercials though: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/Gaew9zzYZb4/hqdefault.jpg "All Sport commercial Shaq 1994") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gaew9zzYZb4) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-nfl-has-moved-the-extra-point-try-back-to-the-15-opinions/731009.md?page=3)