Reader Mail! Extra Points
(Reposting this, as Ndakumong Suh just missed an extra point for the Lions ... and now Wes Welker kicked one for the Patriots. ) In 1971 the Bears had two non-kickers score PATs: Bobby Douglass on a rush and Dick Butkus on a pass from Douglass. Douglass was the Bears' holder on placekicks. Prior to the 2-pt conversion rule in '94; how many times during the era after the merger (1970-1993) had there been successful PATs by rush or by pass in regular season or post-season games? - James It happened at least 30 times. (Steve Largent's 1985 extra point is listed as an uncredited "kick" on Pro-Football-Reference and credited to Norm Johnson in many box scores, so it is possible that there are others that I've missed.) All of these conversions (which counted for 1 point) likely came as the result of botched snaps or holds in field goal formation. (The last time I know of that a team lined up in a non-kicking formation for a 1-point extra point came in the 1940 Championship Game. The Bears lined up in scrimmage formations after their last two touchdowns, but only because the refs feared that they would run out of footballs, 9 of which had already been kicked into the stands. End zone nets would not be introduced for a while.) Extra points other than by kick, NFL, 1970-1993:
A companion list of non-kickers/punters pressed into extra point duty: (Note: Suh is not on the list, as he missed.) Non-specialists who successfully kicked extra points, 1970-2009:
Labels: extra point |