No kickers needed in flag football

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No kickers needed in flag football

Sports

Friday, 04 May 2012 11:42

Rick Pedone
Sports Editor

Harmony’s flag football season ended Tuesday, the same day that Florida high school spring football practice began.

Pulling flags will never replace pancake tackles in 11-man football despite the ongoing concussion discussions, but one aspect of flag football would be intriguing if added to the 11-man game: there’s no place-kicking for points.
There are no field goals in high school flag football, no kicked PATs.
The only way to score is to move the ball across the goal line, just the way the originators of football intended about a century and a half ago.
Tension builds when a flag team moves inside the 10-yard line. The only way it is going to score is to stick the ball into the end zone. If it doesn’t do that, a 60-yard drive is wasted.
Nobody will trot onto the field and bail the team out by kicking a chip-shot field goal.
The flag coaches have to be more aggressive near the goal line. They’ll pass into the end zone on fourth down because, really, what is the option? You either go for it or come up empty.
The Harmony-Dr. Phillips regional flag game, a 25-7 DP win, might have played out much differently if the Lady Longhorns could have kicked field goals.
Three times they moved inside the Dr. Phillips 20 without scoring, twice when they could have extended a 7-6 lead in the second half.
The flag football PAT, run from the 2-yard-line similar to a regular football two-point conversion, is huge. A 7-0 lead in flag football is, in reality, a two-score lead.
Taking field goals away from the NFL would cause a tidal shift in strategy. The games would be different. Maybe a lot more representative of which team really is better, as opposed to who has a good place-kicker.
How many world championships would the Patriots have won without Adam Vinatieri?
ooo
Speaking of the NFL, you might have heard that the league held its draft last week.
So, if you are a Florida NFL fan (and it was tough to be one), should you be feeling good about your team’s 2012 draft?
Probably a big “yes” if you are a Bucs fan, a “possibly” if you are a Dolphins fan and a, “well, I dunno,” if you are a Jaguars fan.
The Bucs cleaned house in the first round, taking Alabama’s Mark Barron, the top safety, early, and then trading up to nab Boise State running back Doug Martin late in the first round to pair with LeGarrette Blount. The Bucs also got a playmaker at linebacker in Nebraska’s Lavonte David. Rookie head coach Greg Schiano comes across as a guy who knows what he is doing. Bucs fans should be optimistic for 2012, given the hammer that has fallen on the New Orleans Saints and Atlanta’s persistent flopping around just below the NFL’s elite teams.
The Dolphins got their quarterback, Ryan Tannehill, in the first round, but any comparison to the Fins last No. 1 QB draft pick, Dan Marino, ends there. Tannehill seems more like a game manager, maybe like the 49ers much-abused Alex Smith, more than a big-time playmaker, but we’ll see. The rest of the Fins draft was just kind of there, an offensive tackle with potential in Jonathan Martin and a couple of reaches in defensive end Olivier Vernon and tight end Michael Egnew in the third round.
The Fins picked up a running back and a couple of receivers in the late rounds who may help, but based on their division, the AFC East, don’t count on this group advancing into the playoffs soon.
The Jaguars continue to mystify from their little black hole up there in Jacksonville, moving up in the first round to take Justin Blackmon, considered the best receiver in the draft. Well, OK, but Blaine Gabbert still is your quarterback, so…. also, what’s the deal with taking punter Bryan Anger in the third round?
Are you kidding?
You can do a lot of dumb things with a third-round draft pick, and taking a punter pretty much tops the list.
The good news? It looks like Minnesota, not the Jags, is L.A. bound.