In football, a team that scores a touchdown can attempt to score and extra point by kicking a field goal. I knew this. What I did not know (and had to look up) was that they're called PATs, for "points after touchdown." I don't typically read sports news, but this week I read an article by Peter King in Sports Illustrated (I'm sure there are better sports magazines but I obviously don't know them) arguing mostly through numbers that the extra point in football is no longer valuable, despite being a beloved practice in football tradition.
King's argument was mostly driven by statistics, which impressed me because I didn't know there were statistics for this kind of thing. He first argues that football is a waste of valuable playing time. It takes about 45 seconds to go through with a PAT, and they happen five times per NFL game. They're not even exciting anymore, he argues. King cites the statistic that in the last three years, 3,709 extra points have been attempted and only eighteen were missed, giving the action a 99.5% success rate. He uses the statistic to point out that PATs have become such automatic actions for kickers that they're not exciting anymore. Employing statistics really enhances his argument because any sports fan can argue that something is good or bad for the sport, but numbers are real proof to support an argument and increase credibility.
Just a page away, King's coworker Robert Klemko wrote an article countering King's viewpoint and saying that change shouldn't be rushed. Although King didn't write it, this is in a way like addressing the counterargument because the two articles are meant to be read together. Each adds credibility to the other in that they were written with the counterargument already in mind. I have not yet read Klemko's take on the issue, but as it stands now, King's was persuasive and informative enough to sway me to his side of the argument.
http://mmqb.si.com/2014/01/23/nfl-extra-point-elimination/
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