Former Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce apparently wants to take the ‘foot’ out of football.
On the latest episode of his ‘New Heights’ podcast alongside his brother and Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, Jason went off on what he deems to be the scourge of the league: kickers making too many field goals.
The Eagles great, who jokingly took credit for Travis’ recent return to form, ranted about how easy it’s become for kickers to knock through field goals of exceeding distance – even suggesting they should do away with the position altogether.
‘Kickers are making 60-yarders like it’s routine, we need to narrow these field goals,’ Jason said.
‘It’s too easy to kick field goals now. We gotta go to rugby goalposts. Kickers should not be influencing football games as much as they are right now.’
Former Eagles center Jason Kelce proposed tightening the uprights on an NFL field
For reference, the inside of the posts in rugby union spans 5.6 meters (18 feet, 4.4 inches), while an NFL goal post spans… 5.64m (18 feet, 6 inches).
‘We need to make kickers way less valuable. That is not what football is about,’ Jason continued.
‘Me and [former Eagles linebacker] Connor Barwin said this like ten years ago: we need to get specialists out of the NFL. Just kickers and long snappers, freakin’ punter ruined the game.’
Travis intervened saying: ‘What everything’s gotta be a Hail Mary now? It adds excitement to the game.’
But Jason was having none of it: ‘Just throw the ball through the uprights. Why do we have to have this guy come out here and kick it? That doesn’t belong on the football field.’
He then went further by suggesting that instead of sending it through the uprights, kickers should ‘just have a big one post and you just gotta hit the post, that’s three points.’
‘I don’t want these guys going out in soccer shoes and you can’t touch ’em and we’re make[ing] believe that this is a football play.’
Kelce proposed contracting the uprights down to rugby post size – making it 2 inches skinnier
Jason’s brother, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, disagreed with his stance
Travis disagreed, saying: ‘Hey, Harry [Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker]’s won me a lot of football games man.’
‘Well yeah, I’m sure you’re pro-kickers ’cause you got a great kicker,’ Jason said before giving props to his former kicker, Jake Elliott of the Eagles. ‘He’s a great kicker too, I just disagree with everything about it.’
Considering that kicking the football has been a part of the game since its inception, it’s not likely that the NFL would ever take this suggestion seriously.
That wasn’t the only topic of discussion between the brothers – with the pair also discussing the recent situation with reporters in the locker room.
