The NFL Finally Eliminated The Dumbest Rule in Professional Sports, Requiring Teams To Attempt an Extra Point After a Game-Ending Score

Well someone finally grew a brain in the NFL offices. I think of all the four sports that may have been the dumbest rule of all time. The rule, requiring a final play (PAT/2 point conversion) be run if a scoring play happened as time expired, really came to surface during the NFC divisional round when Minnesota’s Stefon Diggs made his miracle catch and run to beat the Saints as time expired. What seemed like 10 minutes after the fact, the refs made the Vikings take a knee at the 2 yard line as a random assortment of Saints players came back on the field, including punter Thomas Morestead. The fact that the Saints HAD to come onto the field to stand there as their hearts were just ripped out and stomped on the ground may have been the meanest thing I’ve ever seen in pro sports. What’s worse is for gamblers, who if I remember correctly, had the spread and/or total relying on if the Vikings ran an actual play. The suspense of being a Vikings backer in that moment (I’m pretty sure Dave had them) must have been gut-wrenching.

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The same thing happened when Aaron Rodgers threw his hail mary against the Lions a few years ago. We had to bring both teams on the field after the Packers went bananas in the end zone just so we could fulfill the most buzzkill of rules ever. Well, now the NFL grew some common sense and gave the team the option to run a play or just end the game so we’re done with that. Congratulations to the NFL you buffoons.