Football: NFL, College, and High School

Watching football is one of the most favorite pastimes of America. Everyone can watch the NFL on Sundays and nowadays there is usually one game on Monday night, Thursday night, and Saturday as well. In addition, there are numerous college games available for watching on Saturdays. If you really love football, you can also watch high school games on Friday nights.

Of course the football season only lasts so long. The typical season starts in the late summer or early fall and extends into the early to middle part of winter. The most cherished part of football watching is watching bowl games in college, and playoff games in high school and the NFL. I am a large supporter of football programs and enjoy watching it from the sidelines and on TV.

Even so, there are a lot of complexities in the rules of the game. In overtime in college, both teams get an opportunity to start at the opponent's 25 yard line. The games cannot end in a tie and sometimes third or fourth overtimes do happen.

However, in the NFL, it is a different story. There is only one overtime in regular season games. The game can end in a tie and sometimes it does. The game is also usually decided based on a coin toss. The winner of the coin toss always will elect to receive the ball. Most teams that end up receiving the ball end up winning the overtime game.

There is; however, one large problem I have observed in football games that I simply do not understand. Repeatedly this season in 2008, the Chicago Bears have done something I do not understand. They have kicked the ball during a kickoff very short. This is usually called a squib kick and ends up landing around the 30 or so yard line. The problem is, is that when they have done this, the game is on the line.

During this season the Bears kicked the ball to the Falcons when there was only 10 or so seconds left on the game clock. They did a squib kick and allowed the Falcons rather decent field position. In the next play, Matt Ryan, completed a pass down the field near the Bears 40 yard line and the receiver got out of bounds. There was only 1 second left on the game clock. The Falcons then kicked the ball with a field goal and when the game when time expired.

Similarly, when playing the Packers for the second time, the Bears gave the packers get field position when the game was tied at 17. A squib kick was performed and a decent run back and horse collar penalty allowed the Packers to get the ball at the Bears 35 yard line. This was amazing field position. The Bears went on to win that game, but with some luck.

I simply do not understand why football teams are performing squib kicks to the other team when the game is on the line and time is almost expired. In my mind, it is much better to kick the ball deep, If possible into the back of the end zone, and not allow the other team to have any field position. This will usually make it a lot more difficult for a drive to bring the ball down into field goal range.