NFL To Experiment With Narrower Goal Posts At Pro Bowl
By Phil Watson
The NFL has had the goal posts set at 18 feet, 6 inches wide for a while now … like since 1920. But there is a proposal to try 14-foot wide goal posts at the Pro Bowl.
The NFL has set the width of its goal posts at 18 feet, 6 inches since before the league was even known as the NFL.
Seriously, the 18-foot-6 rule has been in place since the first season of the American Professional Football Association in 1920. The league was renamed the National Football League in 1922.
So, yeah, been a while.
But according to FOX Sports’ Jay Glazer, the NFL will narrow the goal posts to 14 feet for the Pro Bowl, to be played Jan. 25 at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Ariz.
From Glazer:
Reported on @NFLonFOX that NFL will experiment by narrowing width of goalpost from 18.6 ft to 14 at Pro Bowl. Been same width since 1920!!!
— Jay Glazer (@JayGlazer) December 14, 2014
Reported on @NFLonFOX that NFL will experiment by narrowing width of goalpost from 18.6 ft to 14 at Pro Bowl. Been same width since 1920!!!
— Jay Glazer (@JayGlazer) December 14, 2014
This year FGs inside 40 have been 93%. League wants to see if making it harder could make 4th down decisions more exciting
— Jay Glazer (@JayGlazer) December 14, 2014
experimenting w it at Pro Bowl, which is right place to try something. Doesn't mean they will change. But pretty amazing bc same since 1920
— Jay Glazer (@JayGlazer) December 14, 2014
College football changed the width of its posts to the NFL standard of 18-feet-6 in 1991, but left its hashmarks 60 feet from the sidelines—40 feet apart.
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In the NFL, the hashmarks are 70 feet, 9 inches from the sidelines, matching the width of the goalposts.
That has the effect of some college field goals being more difficult than professional ones since they have to be kicked from more extreme angles.
The kickers have just gotten too proficient. The NFL has tried a number of things to make it more difficult.
The NFL changed to the special “K” balls for kicks and punts in 1999, five years after the league changed the rules for where the ball is spotted after missed field goals, moving it from the line of scrimmage to the spot of the kick if outside the 20-yard line.
But with extra points being virtually automatic and kickers hitting 93 percent of field goal attempts inside 40 yards, the NFL wants to encourage more touchdowns and fewer field goals.
Narrowing the posts to make the kicks more difficult might be the trick, at least until the kickers adapt, as they always do.
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