It is surprising that the National Football League (NFL) season has still continued to commence despite the numerous COVID-19 positive cases each week from players and other staff members on football teams. Despite some doubt in the beginning of the season about how Roger Goodell handled the season, it seems like the protocols that the league has set into place have been effectively executed, and hopefully the league can crown a Super Bowl champion without having major complications.
Obviously, there were many setbacks that occurred, and all teams had to adapt to these new circumstances. For example, the later start of training camps and the lack of preseason games to get the players ready for the season has been a huge curveball not only to new rookies, but also to veterans, who are experiencing an extraordinary season that even years of experience could not have prepared them for.
Nevertheless, despite the differences in this year’s football games, we can still appreciate the astonishing highlights and ridicule at the disappointing lowlights. For instance, the Pittsburgh Steelers, a team that was not expected to be the best in the league, has managed to remain without a single loss after ten games. The New York Jets are at the complete opposite side of the spectrum (zero wins and ten losses), and for a while a “Fire Adam Gase” movement has occurred, with Gase being the team’s head coach. The NFC East division, which includes teams such as the Philadelphia Eagles, Washington Football Team, New York Giants, and Dallas Cowboys, has been the laughing stock of the league: through 11 weeks, no team in the division has more than three wins.The New England Patriots, a team that used to consistently win its division, now has a record of 4-5 after Tom Brady and other key players got traded away and is now questionable to even make the playoffs.
Another aspect of the National Football League is the injuries. Obviously, no one wants to be injured, and star players can have their season ended from certain injuries such as ACL tears. This year, in tradition with the bad omen of 2020, an excessively large number of injuries have been accumulated by players all around the league. I could certainly name at least one star from each team that has been injured, but the list would simply be too long. The Dallas Cowboys had starting quarterback Dak Prescott and Andy Dalton as the backup: a solid player that could get the job done. However, when Dak Prescott got injured from an ankle injury, and Andy Dalton was sidelined for a concussion, the team had no choice but to opt towards quarterback Ben DiNucci as their quarterback. His performance was subpar, and he became somewhat of an Internet meme as a result. The league has been continually plagued with injuries, and we can only hope for less injuries next year.
\One more point that is worth addressing is the kicking in the league. In the past, field goals (worth three points) and extra points (one point after the touchdown) were almost guaranteed: after all, kickers are paid lots of money to kick the football into the uprights of the goalpost. From my personal experience, a game-winning field goal would usually mean that the kicking team would win the game because the kickers rarely miss. However, in the 2020 - 2021 NFL season, most were surprised to see that in the first week, the kicking conversion rate, or the percentage of kicks made, was 71.6%, which is significantly below average. This was apparent with Stephen Gostkowski, an experienced kicker that has kicked balls for around 14 seasons, who ended up missing 4 kicks (3 field goals and one extra point) in one game for the Tennessee Titans. Most kickers don’t even receive four attempts to kick the ball, so to miss that many kicks is devastating. Luckily, he was able to convert the final game-winning field goal to help the team just narrowly defeat the Denver Broncos after an abysmal performance.
Why is the decline in kicker performance occurring? This could potentially be due to the lack of a preseason, which gives kickers no time to practice kicking in real game situations. While the concept of kicking a football seems rather basic, it is not surprising if you begin missing kicks if you do not constantly practice and perfect scoring field goals from any distance and in every circumstance. Due to the COVID-19 restrictions, training camps began later, and during that time, priorities are likely shifted towards that of skill positions on the offensive and defensive side of the field, such as quarterback, wide receiver, cornerback, etc. As a result, kickers do not receive as much attention, so they might become rusty and become less accurate. In addition, all kickers have to compete in a stadium without any noise and fans due to the virus, which could also play a huge factor in the percentage of missed kicks. No noise seems to provide less pressure, such as that in a practice session, but that begins to make kickers lose focus and take real game kicks less seriously.
After a tragic first week, it's good to know that the percentages have improved. After 11 weeks, the field goal conversion rate is up to 85.41%, which is still not great, but a much-needed improvement after a 71.6% in the first week of football. After all, kickers are on the field much less than other players and really only kick the football, so they have to continually perfect their few skills that they must display on the field for the team. Overall, teams have had sloppy play in all different areas of the game, but the National Football League has done a splendid job by keeping the league running during COVID-19. Training camps are constantly being shut down if a player or staff member contracts the virus, but the commissioner, Roger Goodell, has implemented proper protocols to keep the league running, so even though we can nitpick about certain aspects, we should be grateful to even be able to watch the National Football League.