Ice This, Dumbass

A coupla years ago HERE I lamented the stupid icing the kicker play:

I just watched that ridiculous "call time-out as the kicker kicks a field goal, making him have to re-kick it and thereby freezing him again" backfire, and I take special glee in the fact that it backfired on Mike Shanahan, who started this whole nonsense. I don't understand why a coach would do this in the first place - you're basically giving the kicker, whom you're trying to "freeze", a practice kick. A full dress rehearsal in front of everyone. So either he misses it and thinks "okay, I gotta adjust such and such way", and any jitters/nerves are probably gone for the re-kick. Or if he makes it he now knows he CAN make it, and is that much more confidant he'll hit the second one. AND, instead of just calling a regular timeout to freeze him, you've now used a non-play that can still get one of your players injured. To me, it's just plain stupid. As Tony Dungy said while eschewing it: "You don't give your opponent a practice free throw, do you?" 

Thankfully, it appears this stupid play is being phased out based on it constantly backfiring. Well, and being stupid in the first place.

Then last week, in the final seconds of the Giants’ loss to Philadelphia, Tynes hooked a hurried 54-yard attempt wide left but had another try because Philadelphia Coach Andy Reid had used the same tactic. 

Given a few moments to gather himself, Tynes’s second effort was far better, flying straight and pure but coming up a yard or two short. 

To Tynes, that situation — in which the Giants’ unit rushed onto the field and “we didn’t know what we were doing” — was an example of how icing can actually help a kicker, not hurt him. 

“If I was a coach, I wouldn’t call it,” he said. “We got to slow down, and do it again better. Plus, why would you ever want to give someone a practice rep on anything? Would you want to practice an 8-foot pressure putt before you had to do it for real? Of course. It’s the same thing.” 

The modern form of icing the kicker — that is, a coach waiting until just before the snap to do it as opposed to having a player on the field make the call — can be traced to 2007, which was the first year coaches were given the authority to call timeouts. Mike Shanahan, then with the Denver Broncos, is given credit for being the first to use the tactic, as he called a timeout just before Oakland Raiders kicker Sebastian Janikowski tried a potential game-winning kick. 

Janikowski made his first (voided) attempt but missed the second, giving rise to a trend that has mushroomed ever since. 

“I didn’t know it was going to turn into that,” Janikowski said. “I think it’s better for the kicker because it gives you the opportunity to get warm. It gives you extra kicks.”