Talk:Field goal (football)

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Contents

[edit] History

Could someone give a little history of the football uprights? I know they moved from the goal line to the back of the endzone for example, but have no idea when or why. Rethcir 18:37, Aug 7, 2004 (UTC)

OK, but not for this article. The goals were moved in the NCAA from the goal line to the end line approximately 1920 IIRC, for the sake of safety -- removing the obstruction. Offset goal structures had been tried but deemed unsatisfactory. The remarks can be found in Spalding's Football Guide for the year it was done.

The NFL, which had inherited NCAA rules, moved the goals back to the goal line approximately 1935, to make scoring goals easier, and all of pro football followed suit. In 1974, copying the WFL, the NFL moved the goals back to the end line, to make scoring goals harder.

The National Federation of State High School Ass'ns inherited NCAA rules after the goals had been moved, so never had them on the goal lines. Canadian football always had the goals on the goal lines. -- robgood@bestweb.net

[edit] Dropped Goal

The official term (http://www.irb.com/NR/rdonlyres/939C2F53-6396-437D-9F29-74FA834504BC/0/9methodsofscoring.pdf) for a field goal in rugby union is "dropped goal" and I have edited the article accordingly.

[edit] Field Goal Lore

Is this section necessary? If it is, at least its first two subsections need a better title. ςפקιДИτς ☺ ☻ 05:24, 21 December 2005 (UTC)

  • I agree it needs a better name but I think both are interesting bits of history about the subject. The fact the record was broken three times in one day and understanding that things go farther at higher altitudes are worth having in my opinion. Maybe I didn't write or express it well enough so feel free to edit. But a better title would be good. jager 15:55, 21 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Style

While the facts all check, the article, simply put, is poorly written. I saw quite a few run-ons, and overall it's just difficult to read. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.96.209.192 (talk • contribs)

Thank you for your suggestion! When you feel an article needs improvement, please feel free to make whatever changes you feel are needed. Wikipedia is a wiki, so anyone can edit almost any article by simply following the Edit this page link at the top. You don't even need to log in! (Although there are some reasons why you might like to…) The Wikipedia community encourages you to be bold. Don't worry too much about making honest mistakes—they're likely to be found and corrected quickly. If you're not sure how editing works, check out how to edit a page, or use the sandbox to try out your editing skills. New contributors are always welcome. --W.marsh 00:06, 6 March 2006 (UTC)

I would like to see a citation on the rule change moving the spot of the kick from 7 to 9 yards behind the line of scrimmage. I have found no such proof of this rule change anywhere on the web. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.163.13.226 (talk) 18:46, 26 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] "Famous Field Goals" and "Infamous Field Goal Attempts" sections

The "Famous Field Goals" and "Infamous Field Goal Attempts" sections suffer the same problem as NFL lore#Honorable Mentions: what criteria is being used, based on verified cited sources, to warrant inclusion of these events? Zzyzx11 (Talk) 06:12, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

Agreed. The "Infamous" section is particularly unimpressive. Interesting in a trivia sense only. These anecdotes should be limited to events that:
  • Changed the outcome (as in winner, not just the final score) of a significant game. By significant, I would say a championship (e.g., the AFC/NFC conference championships, or Superbowl) or a playoff where the benefitting team went on to win a championship . If the benefitting team lost the next playoff game, who really cares except the fans of the losing team?
  • Shed light on the peculiarities of the game. Returning a missed kick for a score is an example, though that one is used earlier in the article.
Using these criteria, I would submit that the two anecdotes appearing in the "Infamous" section now would be excluded. Several others in the article would also be removed. Carboncopy 16:48, 13 November 2006 (UTC)
I cleaned up some junk from that section. The one about the Chicago Bears defeating the Broncos last year was nonsense. I mean how is it a historic kick when it helped one sub .500 team win over another sub .500? LoyalSoldier (talk) 04:17, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] proof of J.P Ross' kick?

65 yard field goal.. drop kick? seems impossible.

is there any other proof of this?

[edit] Split

I'd like to propose that this page be split into three others (Field goal (rugby), Field goal (gridiron football), and Field goal (basketball)), with this page turned into a disambig. Any objections or comments? hateless 22:03, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

I got bold and did it. I'll also copy this talk page to Talk:Field goal (gridiron football), since the discussion here is exclusively to the north american variety. hateless 03:59, 11 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] The name of this page

I agree with the split, but I disagree with the name, since "gridiron football" is not a term generally used in North America. Since the term "field goal" is not used in association football (soccer), I think it would be unambiguous to title the page "Field goal (football)." We could also say "Field goal (American and Canadian football)". -- Mwalcoff 00:00, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

I'll concur. I admit I haven't given much thought over the name, since my knowledge of football/soccer is slim. Seems other pages use "football" as a disambiguator instead of "American and Canadian football" so I think that's finehateless 22:48, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] College Football Attempts?

I know this doesn't seem important, but in a 2006 game between Clemson and Wake Forest, Wake Forest was preparing to kick a field goal against the wind with the clock running at the end of the 3rd quarter, about to take a 20-3 lead. Instead, they elected to wait until the start of the 4th and kick into the wind, but a botched snap picked up by Wake Forest quarterback Riley Skinner allowed Clemson defensive end Gaines Adams to knock the ball out of Skinner's hands and run it down the field to spark what became a 24-point comeback. The final score was Clemson 27, Wake Forest 17. It was nominated for ESPN's "Game Changing Performance" play. Zchris87v 00:38, 17 January 2007 (UTC)


[edit] Drop Kicks

While mentioned a few times in the article there is no explanation about the drop-kick field goal rules or if they are even still in the rulebook. (Which is why I came to the page to look for). If there is someone knowledgable about the topic this seems to me to be something that should be included. Or at least a link to another page about them.Dcpirahna 19:38, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Missing from strategy section: faked/botched attempts

Shouldn't there be something in the strategy section about faked and botched field goals (e.g. lining up as if to kick a fg, but instead, playing for the first down or goal)?

I'm not really enough of an expert to do it myself... --Register allocation 17:08, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Plus ten for my tiny heiny

The distance of a field goal is the exact amount of yards from where the ball is kicked to where the crossbar is on the goalpost. Most often, the distance is 17 yards more than the yardline where the ball is snapped from because the end zone is 10 yards, and most kickers kick the ball from 7 yards behind the line of scrimmage.

This article would benefit from an explanation of the measurement rules for all the leagues covered. MaxEnt 04:59, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Removing "how to" section in "How field goals are kicked"

I've taken the liberty of being bold and removing three paragraphs that read like a how-to manual, which is not what Wikipedia is trying to be. If anyone can refactor the content into something more encyclopedic, please feel free to do so. RJaguar3 | u | t 00:10, 30 May 2008 (UTC)