NFL commissioner Roger Goodell will conduct his annual Super Bowl week state-of-the-league address on Friday, answering questions for 30 minutes or so.
One of the topics he is certain to be asked is whether it has become too easy for kickers, particularly on extra points, and if changes should be made to add more drama to a part of the sport that many believe has become too automatic.
Everyone and their barber has a new proposal, mostly involving the PAT, which some people want abolished completely. But some have also suggested tricking up field-goal kicking by narrowing the distance between the uprights.
“I think eventually they’re trying to take kicking out of the game completely,’’ Broncos kicker Matt Prater told The Post Wednesday. “Last year they talked about taking out kickoffs. This year they’re talking about getting rid of extra points, because they’re made at such a high success rate, everyone takes them for takes them for granted.
“Kickers are getting better and better every year. They want to change some things so [the field goals] are more exciting plays.’’
Is anyone proposing the NFL change the passing rules because Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning threw 55 TD passes this season?
How about this concept: Keep field-goal kicking, which is already a thrilling part of the game, exactly the way it is.
Based on the point spread — Denver is a 2-point favorite over Seattle — there is a very good chance Super Bowl XLVIII Sunday at MetLife Stadium will come down to a field goal made or missed by Prater or Seahawks kicker Steven Hauschka.
What on earth would be wrong with that? Isn’t that kind of drama what we all crave in our biggest football game?
Fittingly, Prater and Hauschka were the two best kickers in the NFL this season. Between them they attempted 73 field goals, including the playoffs, and made 69. Prater is 30-for-32 and Hauschka 39-for-41.
Prater broke the NFL record for the longest field goal when he made one from 64 yards on Dec. 8, eclipsing the record of 63 that Tom Dempsey had held for 43 years.
Prater is a perfectionist with a bionic leg.
“Any time they send me out for a field goal I expect to make it — from any distance,’’ Prater said. “I expect to be perfect.’’
He said this without a hint of arrogance.
In his seven-year NFL career, Prater has converted 47 of 50 field goals in the fourth quarter (94 percent), including all four attempts in overtime. He’s ranked first in Broncos’ history with an 82.9 percent success rate and that includes 21 of 27 (77.8 percent ) from 50 yards or farther.
“He’s the best I’ve ever been around,’’ Broncos punter and holder Britton Colquitt said. “When we play another team and I see him kick against someone else you can see a difference, you can ***** hear ***** a difference in how much stronger he is. His 60-yard kick doesn’t look any different than his extra point as far as height, and I’ve never seen anyone else be able to do that. It’s insane.’’
For all of his talent, Prater, like most kickers, has his quirks. He pierced his own ears while in middle school.
“I told my mom I wanted to get them and she said, ‘If you’re man enough to get earrings, you’ve got to do it yourself,’ ” Prater recalled.
He has been sporting a pair of diamond studs this week “for good luck, hopefully.’’
The soft-spoken Prater also has nine tattoos — a hawk on one shoulder, stars on his sides, a cross on his wrist, the pattern of a hawk feather on his right arm and a wizard on the other shoulder among them. The red-tail hawk, he said, “happens to be my totem, which is your animal spirit that represents you.’’
Hauschka’s quirks are not as apparent, but he is the answer to a trivia question this week as a player who had kicked for both Super Bowl teams.
In December 2010, Hauschka took over on an interim basis for Prater when he suffered a season-ending groin injury.
“Unfortunately it was short,’’ Hauschka said of his stay in Denver, “but it led to me catching on with the Seahawks.”
Now they’ll kick against each other in a game that very well could end up quieting the critics who want to tinker with the league’s long-standing field-goal kicking rules.