Squad of 11?

Author's note: I wrote this right after the AFC Championship (when Billy Cundiff missed a field goal that would have tied the game), and I was thinking about that the kicker is the weakest link on an NFL football team and how much better the NFL would be without them.

A leaping graceful receiver, hit by a flying bullet of brown leather and hitting the ground with unimaginable force and getting up and crying out in a victory celebration, or, a little scrawny man prancing toward the ball and easily putting the ball through two poles. Personally, I hope you choose the first one because so many great games have been decided by leaping receivers that knock down defenders and beat everyone to the ball.  A lot more games would be decided by these amazing catches and athletic leaps if the NFL eliminated the kicking specialist.

Quarterbacks, running backs, tight ends. These are positions that are getting paid millions of dollars a year, the positions that require absolute athleticism, the positions that fans pay to see in action.. The fifth highest paid position in the league is a kicker. If kickers were eliminated, teams would spend more money on other positions and we would see better football all around. Teams would spend money on a quicker, faster, more powerful offense with because they have to score a touchdown. We would see high scoring games, something we haven’t seen since the 8-game era in the 1960’s. We would see the hard hitting, no mercy football that so many critics have been wanting for years.

In professional sports, we usually wouldn’t think of an un-athletic person on the field of one of the toughest sports in the world. If the NFL lets un-athletic people into the league, people who skip out on weight lifting session, and don’t show up to practice until the last five minutes, then I don’t think they have any reason to complain, but they do anyway. Kickers in the NFL complain because people say they are not athletic. They say this because it is true. Kickers are scrawny excuses for football players that slide all over the field (see pictures). Kickers have no reason to complain and we could kick them out easily without changing the game too much.

Athleticism, power, strength, speed. These are the skills that American football was built on, not wimpy little kickers flailing their arms. If we eliminated the kickers, we could go back to the football America has come to know and love. The kind with hard hits, powerful runs, and leaping, circus catches.